DETECTIVES hunting thieves who broke into a million-pound home just days after it was featured on a popular property program have made a fresh appeal for information.

DETECTIVES hunting thieves who broke into a million-pound home just days after it was featured on a popular property program have made a fresh appeal for information.

The home in Langenhoe, near Colchester, featured on Channel 4's Location, Location, Location earlier this month.

But within days of the show being screened, the house had been targeted and a £2,000 oil painting was stolen, raising the possibility the crooks got the idea as they sat watching the program.

The thieves entered the house through a window while the unnamed victim's 26-year-old daughter was in the kitchen.

Police have now made a fresh appeal for information about the raid last Saturday , believed to be at about 9pm,

The hit show, which featured two couples from Essex hunting for their dream homes, is presented by Phil Spencer and Kirsty Allsopp.

Yesterday a spokesman for Essex Police said: “Two suspicious cars were seen during the day before the burglary - a red one and a black one, which were cruising in the area.

“It could be something that is totally innocuous, the people may have information or they may have been the suspects.”

The spokesman said if someone had been in the area during the day, they should contact police to help enquiries.

The episode showed the presenters trying to find a home for fussy Chelmsford entrepreneur Steve Clark and his wife Dee.

They did not buy the five-bedroom house which was burgled. It is still being advertised by estate agents Strutt and Parker at an asking price of £1.1million.

It has a swimming pool, gardens and paddocks, as well as a coach house, cart lodge, garage, and other outbuildings, set in seven acres of land and has been on the market since April.

A spokeswoman for RDF Media, which produces Location Location, said: “RDF Television takes the welfare of all its contributors extremely seriously, and were sorry to hear that the owners of a property featured in a recent episode of Location Location Location were the victims of a burglary.

“Since the incident, RDF Television has contacted the family concerned and both parties are fully satisfied that there is no link between the broadcast of the said episode and the subsequent burglary.”

Anyone with information about the burglary should contact Pc Marc Barry at Colchester CID on 01206 762212.