Police are hunting thieves who smashed into an isolated home and stole a safe containing a £35,000 Rolex watch.

The householder, who has asked to remain anonymous, says he has been left stunned by the crime.

He told how he returned to the property, near Cobham, at 9pm on Wednesday last week to discover a rear door badly damaged.

The inside of the home had been ransacked and a CCTV recording device ripped out and taken so he couldn't check the footage.

A safe hidden in the wardrobe of his bedroom was missing.

The 40-year-old had gone out around 4pm, first to the gym in Rochester and then to his parents' home in Meopham.

He said: "When I got in and saw the damage, I raced upstairs to confront them, but they'd already gone, so I just stood there dumbfounded by what was before me."

The glass pane in the back door was shattered, doors yanked from wardrobes and clothes and bags left strewn across the rooms.

The victim worries the thieves somehow had inside knowledge of the property and where the safe was.

Because of its rural location, they might have waited in nearby fields for him to leave before smashing their way in.

The police confirmed the incident is being looked into with spokesman Vicki Foster saying: "A safe containing jewellery was reported to have been stolen. No arrests have yet been made and inquiries are ongoing."

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