A businessman captured the moment crooks tried to break into his van - before scarpering.
Stephen Grierson, of Highburton, caught the pair red-handed on his CCTV from the early hours of Tuesday as they try to get into the vehicle before a car pulls up outside.
The car is thought to be that found abandoned near Emley Moor Mast the next morning.
Stephen, 44, who owns Shelley-based industrial supplies company Portcullis, said he had recently installed the CCTV after £10,000 worth of equipment was stolen from his van in February.
“It turned out to be a good decision”, he said.
“Even if they had managed to get in, they wouldn’t have got anything as there was no equipment inside.”
The suspects smashed the driver’s side window of the van before making off.
Stephen added: “You can see one of the men gesturing before a car slows down outside the house.
“The two ran off. The next day I saw police posting pictures on Facebook of a car abandoned in Emley.
“I can’t tell exactly, but it looks more or less like the car from the footage.
“It’s a bit of a coincidence that it happened on the same night.”
Police posted pictures of the abandoned vehicle on their Kirklees Rural page.
They wrote: “There was nobody in it, or with it, or nearby (we checked!).
“The car has now been recovered and we’ll be speaking to the owner to discuss how it got there!”
Stephen has notified a local police officer and is waiting to hear back.
In unrelated investigations, police would like to speak to the people pictured in the image gallery below. The people pictured in the images may be witnesses as well as suspects. If you recognise anyone, contact police on 101 quoting the reference number on the image caption.
