Police are hunting for burglars who used a garden trolley to steal a safe containing thousands of pounds worth of distinctive jewellery from a Sidmouth home.

Police are hunting for burglars who broke into a Sidmouth home and stole thousands of pounds worth of distinctive jewellery.

The homeowners returned home on 10 January to find their Sid Lane property had been broken into and the safe stolen.

The offenders got inside the house by carefully removing a ground floor window and ripping out all of the alarm boxes.

A tidy search was made throughout the property before the offenders escaped with a safe from the main bedroom.

The safe was so heavy that the offenders used a small garden trolley from the garage to transport it to the road 50 yards away.

They stole thousands of pounds worth of jewellery including a gold ‘Half Hunter’ wind-up pocket watch and a gold watch known as an ‘Albert’ which contains a T-piece to secure the chain to a pocket and a telescopic toothpick.

Also taken were two gold sovereign coins bearing Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria plus Crown coins bearing Winston Churchill, Prince Charles and Lady Diana.

Other distinctive pieces stolen include a gold ring in the style of a Turkish puzzle and a silver bracelet carrying a variety of African charms. The links contain engraved pictures and one of the charms, a Juju shaped like a hollow silver person, is very rare.

Police are appealing for witnesses and would like to speak to anyone who saw anything suspicious in Sid Road on 10 January.

Anyone who is offered the items for sale or knows of their whereabouts is asked to contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111, quoting crime reference KS/13/8.