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t least six robberies have been recorded in Central Java’s southern regions of Kebumen, Purbalingga, Cilacap and Banyumas regencies over the past month, but none of the perpetrators’ identities has been revealed by the police.

Banyumas Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Dwiyono said measures had been intensified in the region to anticipate further robberies, especially after two occurred on consecutive days in different locations in the regency.

“We have deployed additional personnel to guard all gold stores and other vital facilities, including in marginalized areas,” Dwiyono told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Of the six robberies in the four neighboring regencies, three involved the use of firearms and targeted gold stores.

No fatalities have been reported in the incidents, but financial losses are estimated to reach more than Rp 5 billion, with some 10 kilograms of gold being stolen.

The first robbery happened simultaneously with two gold store robberies in the Telogo Pragoto traditional market in Kebumen some three weeks ago.

A gold trader was robbed at about the same time on the Menganti toll road in Cilacap.

The third robbery was of two gold stores in a traditional market in Kejobong, Purbalingga, using exactly the same modus operandi as the one in Kebumen.

The next was experienced by a businessman in Adipala, Cilacap, from whom the robbers took some Rp 80 million in cash.

The latest robberies that occurred on consecutive days, Monday and Tuesday, happened respectively at an ATM in Kembaran district, Banyumas, and at the house of the chairman of the Democratic Party’s Banyumas branch, Widodo.

Purbalingga Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ferdy Sambo said his men had been tracking the robbers for the last week.

“Hopefully we will be able to catch them in the near future,” said Ferdy, assuring that the robbers came from outside Purbalingga.

Separately, sociologist Ahmad Rofik of the Jendral Soedirman University in Purwokerto, Banyumas, linked the rise in robberies in the region to the frustration that the community felt as a whole in dealing with daily life, especially in regard to social and economic matters.

“Difficulty in getting a job, economic disparity, damage to social solidarity can all lead to criminal acts and other anarchic acts,” said Rofik, who is a lecturer at the university’s School of Social and Political Sciences.

“It’s the task of community figures and local administrations to find solutions to the problem,” he said.