BURGLARS are targeting the homes of elderly people and stealing antiques and jewellery in raids which police describe as like 'something out of Lovejoy'.

In the past three weeks, three properties in Barton, Torquay, have been broken into. Fortunately none of the occupants, mostly in their eighties, were in at the time of the break-ins.

Watches, carriage clocks, porcelain, pearl necklaces and figurines with a combined value running into thousands of pounds have been stolen.

Now officers in the specialist burglary team have issued an appeal for residents to keep a lookout for anything suspicious and the distinctive high value stolen goods.

DC Bill Goodwin said all the burglaries were at the homes of elderly people in the more rural and remote areas at the top of Barton.

"The offender seems to be very definitive in what he takes in that it is antiques and jewellery. He walks past the typical electrical goods and is very selective about what he takes," said DC Goodwin.

And he says that someone must know where the 'distinctive pieces' are now.

He said: "Stuff like this will normally end up in the hands of an unscrupulous antiques dealer, and it is almost like something out of Lovejoy because they are targeting antiques and very nice jewellery."

Lovejoy was a BBC television show about an antiques dealer, played by Ian McShane, who had numerous scrapes with the shadier side of the antiques world.

DC Goodwin said the sentimental value of the stolen goods to the elderly victims was 'priceless' and that at each burglary no one had been in the property.

"I think whoever is doing this is picking the property because when you look at them you can tell that they belong to an elderly person," he added.

Police are continuing their investigations in the Bay but are not ruling out the possibility of the suspect coming from out of the area.

If anyone has any information, call DC Goodwin on 01803 841615 quoting crime reference number FT098594 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 08000 555 111.