AS if going viral on social media wasn't enough this clever headline on the News & Star newspaper attracted praise from one of Britain's biggest bands.

Saturday's front page of the North Cumbrian newspaper featured the story of a raid at a music shop which was cleverly headlines: Orchestral removers in the dark.

Pictures of the front page had already been shared far and wide before Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's co-founder Andy McClusky tweeted a picture of himself holding the paper.

He captioned the picture: "Passing through Cumbria, thought we'd pick a copy of the local paper up..."

OMD are descibed as being an influence on many artists in diverse genres and songs have been covered, remixed and sampled by numerous chart musicians.

Anti-war song Enola Gay went on to become one of their greatest hits.

The band are currently playing a tour of Europe.

Cumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner Peter McCall also praised the headline-writer but issued a reminder that a serious crime had been committed.

Mr McCall wrote: "It is a great headline and great to have OMD passing through - stay, do a gig next time, but serious side: any information please contact Cumbria Police."

The headline comes after £40,000 haul of more than 230 instruments was taken from Omega Music at Townfoot Industrial Estate in Brampton. The suspects cut a hole in the roof and entered the shop's attic warehouse sometime overnight on Tuesday.

They cleared the shelves of saxophones, clarinets, flutes, trumpets and French horns and ripped the lining from a huge double base case to transport their loads back out of the roof. They were then thought to have been taken from the back of the premises into a waiting van.

Staff at Omega believe the shop has been targetted in a planned, professional job where the site has been checked out beforehand and the offenders knew what they wanted to take.

Owner Ian Warnes: "The alarm was still set because they hadn't triggered it. It was covering the doors and windows. It's as if they knew precisely where the sensors were but they could have been lucky.

"They were very clever. They didn't come into the car park. They slid all the instruments down the bank onto the main road."

Manager Mike Green thinks they've taken a transit-van load of kit. He said: "It must have taken them a good bit of time. "They took many smaller, portable things. The biggest thing would have been a small drum kit."

Sean Murray, purchasing officer, said: "If they had a bigger van they might have gone downstairs [where the alarm is] and been caught red-handed."

Mr Warnes continued: "Police say it is highly likely part of a network and they funnel to eastern European countries. They will be on their way."

It's thought the instruments would not be sold in the UK as the music industry is so tight-knit it would be too risky.

Mr Warnes started the business 30 years ago and while he was burgled once in the beginning, it has never happened since.

He said: "We are disgusted. We will recover but it's a bit of a set back."

He was once almost caught out was when two Steinway pianos, each worth £90,000, were requested on loan for a wedding in the Lake District. As they were about to deliver them, Mr Warnes' wife warned him of her suspicions after checking out the credit card.

"They wedding had been 'cancelled' and they were there to take the pianos away," he said.

Omega supplies more than 6,000 school and has a large online presence, trading on the likes of Amazon.

Cumbria Police are appealing for anyone with information to contact 101 quoting log 49 of November 15. Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555111.