Bhubaneswar, July 2: Beware the next time you park your vehicle on the premises of a government office or at a public place as police say that these are hunting grounds for bike thieves.

Prakash Ranjan Jethi, an employee of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, lost his bike from his office premises last Thursday. The motorbike was kept near the entrance to the main office building where the mayor’s car is usually parked.

“I parked my bike in front of the entrance because I thought it would be a safe place. But around 2pm, some friends informed me that my motorcycle had been stolen. I was shocked. I searched for it and asked the security guards if they had seen anyone tampering with it, but to no avail,” said Jethi. He said it was stolen while the security guard had been away for lunch.

Jethi, who lodged a complaint with Badagada police, met inspector in charge of Nayapali police station Anup Kanungo, hoping to get his motorcycle back. Kanungo is considered to have expertise in cracking cases of vehicle theft.

Jethi is not the only employee of the corporation whose two-wheeler has been stolen. Sources at his office said eight bikes had been stolen from the premises in the past month.

Sumant Behera, an employee of a private company, lost his motorcycle when it was parked on the Capital Hospital premises last week. He said he had used double lock to prevent theft, but the thieves managed to steal the bike from near the hospital’s police outpost.

Most motorcycle theft complaints came from people who had parked their vehicles at public places or on government office premises.

A senior police officer said they had been asking those in charge of public places to deploy security guards to keep an eye out for thieves.

“In many cases, they do not follow our instructions. Though they deploy guards, the security personnel are busy with other activities and thieves take advantage of the situation,” said the officer.

Officials at various police stations said that though these places had parking provision for their staff members, they did not have dedicated facilities for visitors.

The Telegraph found that it was common for the higher-ups at government offices and public places to be ignorant about the thefts.

Though about eight bike thefts were reported from the corporation office premises in the past month, the additional commissioner of the corporation said he hadn’t heard of these incidents.

“It is hard to guard all the vehicles as a large number of people visit this office. Within a week, we are going to put in place a mechanism to check the identity of people coming to the office. We will ask the guards at the main entrance to keep a record of visitors,” said additional commissioner Krushna Chandra Pati.

Inspector Kanungo said the cops often raided hideouts of thieves and seized motorcycles from them. But, many thieves have managed to sell off stolen vehicles outside the state, thereby reducing the chances of recovery.

“We have instructed people several times to adopt preventive mechanisms, but they don’t follow our instructions and fall victims to the theft. We try our best to seize the stolen vehicles,” said Kanungo.

Sources said that last year, over 600 motorcycle thefts had been reported in the city, but the recovery rate was below 50 per cent.

City police recently started a massive drive against thieves after identifying around 200 of them with previous records in stealing motorcycles.

Besides, blocking and checking drives are taking place at many places in the city to curb such crimes.

A police official said they were asking owners to park their vehicles using preventive mechanisms such as a double lock, properly locking the handle, keeping their keys safe and asking guards to keep a watch on their vehicles.

“Besides, the security guards must not allow anybody to roam around in the parking lots. In case they see anyone whose behaviour is suspicious, they should ask them to leave the spot. The authorities must dedicate separate parking lots to employees and visitors,” said a police official.