A gang of five criminals met their match when they stole chain saws and other equipment from Adrian Walmsley’s shed at his home on Boa Island, Kesh.

The 54-year-old building contractor saw the young thieves flee in their getaway car and gave chase in his van. The high-speed pursuit ending up in a showdown on an isolated country road near the Border between Fermanagh and Donegal.

As Adrian recalls, it was around 6.30pm last Wednesday that “it all kicked off.” He had been in the house for about 15 minutes.

“I just heard a car up at the shed,” he explains. “The door wasn’t locked. It normally would be but I had been in and out that day, getting bits and pieces.” Adrian jumped into his Renault Traffic van and sped down to the shed. A quick glance inside confirmed his worse fears; his two chain saws, a hedge trimmer and quick cut saw were missing.

He got back into his van and headed for the main road. Having lost sight of car, a light green Nissan Primera, he “took a chance” and turned right, believing the thieves would be heading towards Belleek rather than Kesh. His hunch was correct because he soon caught up with the Nissan.

“There was five boys in it,” he recalls.

Undaunted at being outnumbered five-to-one he continued with the pursuit with the driver of the getaway car desperately trying to shake him off their tail. He was “swerving about, trying to bluff me that they were going into a side road and then turn out at the last minute”.

Adrian estimates that the Nissan reached speeds of between 70 and 80mph as the criminals tried to make good their escape, but there was too much traffic on the road.

“Thankfully they kept getting caught behind cars,” explains Adrian.

The gang travelled through Belleek, taking the road for Garrison and then making a right turn on to a narrow country back road, heading for Ballyshannon.

“I was tight on their tail,” Adrian recalls.

“When I left the house I phoned back home and told my wife what had happened,” he explains.

He had given her the registration number of the getaway car and told her to contact the police.

His son had also taken up the chase but had turned for Kesh in case the thieves had chosen that road as their escape route. When Adrian told him the crooks were heading for Belleek he turned around and was also closing in on the getaway car.

Looking out the rear window of the Nissan the thieves saw Adrian on the phone and must have realised they would eventually be run to ground. On a isolated stretch of the narrow country road they signalled and pulled over.

Adrian thinks they may have thought: “If we give it back we will live to steal another day.” “They just knew they were cornered and they and they were going to get more and more cornered the more I kept on at them,” he says.

“Two boys jumped out of the two back doors and said: ‘What’s your problem?’ I said: ‘My problem is, you thieving b*****ds have stolen my saws and they’re in the boot of your car.’” The gang realised the game was up and said: “We’ll give them to you now.” However, they still tried to bluff him.

“One opened the boot and set out three of my saws,” says Adrian. “They said: ‘That’s you now boss.’ “I said: ‘No. I can see my quick cut saw in there.’ He said he could also see his extension lead in the boot. The criminals claimed it wasn’t his but he recognised it from the tape on it.

Adrian remained standing at the door of his van.

“I wanted to be in a position to drive if they drove off again or they tried to attack me,” he explains.

“They were smart enough to set the saws on the road so I couldn’t follow them,” he adds. “I got all back, thankfully.” He drove back home and the police arrived about an hour later to take a statement from him about what had happened.

“Even the police were surprised they handed it back to me just like that,” he says.

Was he not afraid the criminals might not have given him back his saws without a fight and might have attacked him?

“When somebody steals your property you wouldn’t be much of a man if you didn’t try to take it back off them. Nobody is going to come in here and take something of mine,” he insists.

“If I hadn’t pursued them I wouldn’t have my saws back. When the blood is up in you you will do what has to be done, and that’s it,” says Adrian.