Bhubaneswar: Nayapalli police arrested a gang of five thieves for allegedly stealing valuables from people by taking advantage of festive crowds in the Nayapalli area on Wednesday, police said on Thursday.According to a complaint filed by Hemant Pujari, a Nayapalli resident, several people allegedly sidelined him in the crowd and snatched his phone and gold chain on Tuesday night. Police identified the persons as Babli Rao, Sarda Das, Sanji Ray, Lucky Singh and Jitendra Majhi. Several phones and other valuables were recovered from their possession, and an investigation was initiated.In a separate incident, burglars targeted a house in VSS Nagar late on Wednesday night when the residents were away. They allegedly fled with 40 grams of gold and cash worth Rs 30,000. No arrests have been made in the case so far. Following complaints, police teams from Khandagiri, Nayapalli, Mancheswar, Chandrasekharpur and Laxmi Sagar police stations detained suspected thieves and recovered stolen mobile phones and valuables. Police said most complaints came from Durga Puja mandaps in Jharpada, Rasulgarh, Baramunda, Nayapalli and Saheed Nagar.