They are all teenagers, school dropouts and daring enough to operate in broad daylight. Over the past six months, they were involved in at least six burglaries in south Calcutta.

But they ran out of luck on Friday, when they had assembled to commit their seventh burglary in Ballygunge, and landed in the police net.

Officers of the anti-burglary section arrested all but one gang members ? Sanju (16), Montu (18), Jay (16), Mithun (18) and Vicky (15). Akshay, 17, is at large.

Gyanwant Singh, deputy commissioner of police (detective department), said all six used to work for Shankar Das, 25, alias Jhantu, who allegedly operates from Harish Chatterjee Street.

?The teenagers used to roam around in a taxi to identify houses under lock and key. On spotting a house, they would unlock the door. While four would step in, the rest stood guard outside,? Singh said.

After an operation, the gang would report to Jhantu with the loot.

Police have identified the victims of the gang: Kajori Bose and Shyamal Chowdhury (Bhowanipore), Bhaskar Sen Gupta (Tollygunge), Mala Chatterjee (Rashbehari Avenue), Kasturi Mullick (Ballygunge Station Road) and Krishna Maity (Lake Gardens). Police said valuables and cash worth more than Rs 10 lakh were looted from the six houses.