MANDYA: Thieves made a futile bid to break open an iron cash vault containing new Rs 2,000 currency notes at Maddur post office here on Tuesday night.
Maddur police said the thieves who were aware of the cash being stacked in the post office for exchange, broke open its main door before laying their hands on the cash vault.
Though they managed to remove the vault fixed to the wall using gas cutters, they were unsuccessful in opening it.
Police said the thieves might have attempted to break open the vault till early morning and left when they did not succeed.
The incident came to light on Wednesday morning when the post office staff came to work as usual and alerted the police. Dog squad and fingerprint experts were pressed into action. Post office staff said they had received a fresh batch of new currency notes on Tuesday to facilitate cash transactions.
Long queues continue
Meanwhile, long queues before banks and ATMs to exchange old currency notes and withdraw cash continued across Mysuru, Mandya and Chamarajanagar districts on Wednesday.
At some places, the citizens who went to exchange notes had to return disappointed because of no cash. At Syndicate Bank located in Vijayanagar 2nd stage, the staff refused to exchange old notes to legal tenders, citing non-availability of indelible ink to mark the fingers.