Five MbPT security guards -- M S More, M Chavan, Lawrence Fernandes, G Bhugbal and D Amle -- were patrolling the Indira Docks on Saturday night when they noticed a Maruti van (MH01 V 1523) moving suspiciously near a foreign ship. A search of the van threw up 150 gold biscuits, valued at around Rs 70 lakh, concealed in the back seat. The driver tried to flee, but was apprehended. He was identified as Karim and handed over to Customs officials .

However, as news spread, 75-80 other staff members materialised from almost nowhere to try and get their names into the records and thereby swipe a share of the reward, said an MbPT official. According to Customs policy, about 20 per cent of the contraband's value is awarded to informers or persons responsible for the seizure. ``Each staffer kept telling the others to stay mumabout the seizure so that others would also not jump on to the bandwagon,'' said the employee. Evidently, that did not work. With a decision yet to be taken, the quintet is now wondering whether they had struck gold, after all.