Bhubaneswar, Aug. 7: Goons employed a novel way to rob the cash manager of a petrol pump at Kalpana Square of more than Rs 60,000 yesterday afternoon.

A visibly shocked Kanhu Charan Barik, the cash manager of the petrol pump, said: “Two youths had told me that some currency notes were lying scattered outside his office. When I went out to collect the notes, I could not find any. As I returned, the duo were no longer there. Even other employees had not noticed them.”

In the two minutes that Barik took to return to his office, the duo had opened the cash box and escaped with the money.

Barik said he had never faced such a situation. What shocked him most was the way the goons managed to loot cash from a crowded area.

This case was not the one-of-its-kind in the city.

Around six incidents of theft with similar modus operandi had been reported in several areas under the jurisdiction of Kharavela Nagar police station in the capital in the last month.

On July 25, cash was looted from Sukant Kishore Sahu, a private company employee, in similar fashion. The goons dropped some notes of Rs 10 on the ground just behind Sahu while he was entering a bank at Satya Nagar. As Sahu went to pick up the currency notes lying on the ground keeping his bag containing Rs 40,000 cash on his two-wheeler seat, the goons fled with his bag within no time.

A retired state government employee, Rabi Pani, was also looted of Rs 40,000 cash from Kharavela Nagar last month. The thieves had adopted the same modus operandi in this case, too.

The new techniques adopted by the thieves have caused much trouble for the city police who have not been able to arrest those involved in any of these incidents.

A senior police officer said criminals were earlier targeting people going to or coming from a bank with cash. The number of these incidents came down after police personnel were deployed around various banks in the capital. “In earlier cases, we were able to get CCTV footage from the bank to nab the culprits. But in the new techniques adopted by the criminals, we cannot get to see any video footage. So, it is becoming difficult for us to arrest them,” said the officer.

He also added that the victims even could not vividly narrate the appearance of the persons, who informed them about the money lying on the ground.

“When they cannot say anything about the appearance of the goons, it becomes hard for us to reach out to them. We had even shown the victims photographs of some local thieves, but they could not recognise them. We think one particular gang operating in the city is involved in all these incidents. We hope to be able to catch them shortly,” said an officer of Kharavela Nagar police station.

Inspector in charge of Badagada police station Rajat Ray said they were inquiring about the theft case of last afternoon.

The police are also worried about another trend of anti-socials using chilly powder to loot valuables. Three days ago, goons threw chilly powder on a man’s eye and took away a bag from him in the crowded Master Canteen Square area. The man sustained injuries and had to be admitted to a hospital.