VIDEO: Masked raiders storm Funny Girls, smash CCTV cameras and steal thousands from safe

Masked raiders smashed their way into the drag cabaret attraction to steal a safe loaded with cash and cause thousands of pounds of damage.

So far, they have evaded capture as owner Basil Newby and his workers count the cost and clear up the mess – but they may have make a massive mistake.

Although the crew wrecked the building’s camera system, what was caught on film was back-up, leaving detectives with potentially vital leads, including a name picked up by a microphone.

Basil, 68, who bought Funny Girls back from Thwaites just nine months ago, said: “I’m devastated. I’ve been back just a months and everything has been going great. Then this comes along and smacks you in the face.”

Four burglars are thought to have broken into Flamingo nightclub next door, which Basil also owns, at around 1.30am on Monday.

CCTV footage shows one of the intruders – whose face was obscured by a white scarf – thumping his way through a staff room door separating the two venues with a sledgehammer

Seemingly aware of where the camera was, his first job once inside Funny Girls is to turn it towards a wall, leaving Basil to wonder just how much work went into the raid.

Ocean’s Eleven, a 2001 film starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, follows a gang of crooks and thieves who plan a $150 million heist from a casino in Las Vegas.

And, like Clooney’s character Danny Ocean and his band of partners-in-crime, Basil thinks a great deal of preparation was done before the break-in.

“It didn’t set the alarms off because they didn’t get in through the doors,” he said. “They have taken the safe out, gone through the building, smashed all the doors in, gone right up to the main tower, and smashed the CCTV system.

“What they didn’t realise is that we have another CCTV system backing it up.”

Basil said footage taken from a camera covering Lord Street at the back of Funny Girls showed the crooks get away in a black car.

“They took all the weekend’s takings that were in the safe,” Basil added. “It was in the thousands.

“They obviously knew what they were doing and obviously knew the lay-out of the premises, which leads to me to believe it was someone who is familiar with the venue.

“There must have been 20 doors in the building that were locked, and they smashed all of them in.”

Funny Girls, usually open seven days a week, was forced to stay closed on Monday and Tuesday, but was re-open yesterday, with the clean-up operation underway behind the scenes.

Around £5,000 of damage was done, with damage to the CCTV system alone totting up to around £3,000.

Basil added: “Police have been in and out all day, they’ve had forensics here and they’ve taken CCTV with them.

“I’m hopeful they will be able to track the car – it’s got to have gone somewhere.

“With the heavy disguises they were wearing, it would be hard to recognise them, but there was a name overheard on the CCTV.”

Dean Bennett is the operations director at Funny Girls, and he said: “I feel like we have been targeted. It seems very constructed. They knew what they were doing, where they were going.

“I have never seen anything like this before at Funny Girls. Nothing of this degree. We have been broken into in the past, but nothing like this.

“Of course we have got insurance. It’s more that these people have broken into practically every room in the building, and it does make us worry what if it happens again.

“Everybody knows that here at Funny Girls we’re like a family. It’s like somebody burgling your home. It’s an invasion of privacy. Even though Funny Girls is open and welcomes the public every day of the week, there are parts of the building that are private. It could be something as simple as a picture of your family on your desk being smashed. My personal desk was broken into.

"I just don’t feel like it was a spontaneous burglary. It does give the impression that it’s somebody we know, and that’s the worst part about it. It could be anybody.”

The venue now hopes to upgrade its security system, with meetings planned for next week about what should be put in place.

Basil added: “Luckily, nobody was in here to experience the trauma of being in the premises during a break-in.

“The support I’ve had, not only from friends and family but from the public as well, as been amazing. The phone has never stopped ringing.”

A spokesman for Lancashire police said: “The Funny Girls burglary is reported to have happened at some time between midnight and 9am on Monday. The offenders have got in through a wall in Flamingo.

“A quantity of cash was taken from a safe and cash box.

“An investigation is on-going and there doesn’t appear to have been any arrests.”

Anyone with information can call 101 quoting incident reference 324 of February 17.