Detective Sergeant Steve Brown, of the Portland police crime investigation unit, said the business premises of Bluescope Distributions on the Portland-Nelson Road was broken into between 11am Monday and 4.15pm Tuesday after a toilet window was removed.

“The office was ransacked and damage caused to computer screens and airconditioning units,” he said.

“A safe was removed from a storage room, dragged into the office and the thieves have used some sort of tool to force open the safe. We believe that an as-yet-unknown quantity of cash was then stolen from the safe. Damage to the safe was substantial — the safe looked like it had been opened by a can opener.”

Warrnambool crime scene police officers are heading to Portland  to investigate.

Detective Sergeant Brown said a neighbouring truck yard was also burgled overnight Monday, with a prime mover stolen and crashed.

He said thieves had entered the yard of KJ Pty Ltd on the Portland-Nelson Road between 8pm Monday and 7.30am Tuesday.

“Items have been stolen from a prime mover including a hard hat, hatchet binders and a fire extinguisher,” he said. “They have then got into a Kenworth prime mover and driven it around before crashing into a side fence and getting bogged.”

That followed a brazen car theft in Portland’s Percy  Street on Monday morning shortly after a woman parked her car. The damaged 1989 Ford Telstar sedan was found along the Portland-Nelson Road on Tuesday morning.