Thief in Germany drives tractor through house wall, steals safe

Police in northwestern Germany are searching for a brazen thief — or thieves — who knocked down the wall of a house with a tractor and made off with a safe.

Police in northwestern Germany are searching for a brazen thief — or thieves — who knocked down the wall of a house with a tractor and made off with a safe.

A tractor stands in front of a damaged house after it broke through the wall in Buende, north-western Germany on Thursday. Unknown intruders steered the tractor into the house and broke through the wall in order to steal a safe. The residents were not injured. (Nord-West-Media TV/AP)

Police say the tractor was used early Thursday morning to bash down the wall of the home in the town of Buende, west of Hannover, according to the dpa news agency.

The thief or thieves grabbed the safe and fled, and the John Deer farm tractor was left halfway inside the house.

Authorities say the home’s residents weren’t harmed in the robbery but refused to say what was being kept in the safe or to give any further information because of the ongoing investigation.