Raiders caused around £20,000 of damage to a popular Stourbridge theme pub after breaking in and stealing a safe containing £9,000 in cash.

Raiders struck at The Mad O’Rourke’s Pie Factory in Camp Hill, Wordsley.

The thieves cut the phone lines in the pub and disconnected CCTV before stealing the hard drives to ensure they went undetected.

They then forced entry through a back door and dragged a huge safe – containing £9,000 – out of the pub.

Pub owner Pete Towler believes that an “organised gang” carried out the raid on Sunday and says they must have used a lorry to transport the heavy safe.

He said: “It took six men to lift that safe in to place so this is an organised operation we are looking at. Police say they have found at least four different footprints in the pub.”

Mr Towler said the break-in could not have come at a worse time, as he is due to open a new Pie Factory – called the Mad O’Rourke’s Steak ‘n’ Pie Factory – in Himley Road, Lower Gornal, Dudley, on Thursday.

Staff discovered the break-in at 8am on Monday morning and believe it must have happened overnight on Sunday or in the early hours of Monday morning.