THE two thieves did a double-take as they drove past A1 Appliances in the Gloucestershire village of Cam. Outside the shop was what looked like the very spin-dryer they had stolen not half an hour earlier.

A man was leaning on it as they drove past, reading their registration to the police over his mobile phone. The thieves, being hunted by Gloucestershire police, had been the victims of a swift retaliatory theft by an enterprising shopkeeper.

In the world of spin-drying thefts, what goes around comes around. They had stolen his spin-dryer. He had stolen it back.

It was around lunchtime in Cam, a small market town at the bottom of the Cotswolds, when John Cunningham-Smith noticed something strange on the CCTV system of A1 Appliances, the store he manages for his father-in-law.

He had just made a sale and had gone into the office when he saw on the small television screen a man wandering out of the shop with a spin-dryer worth £129.

In the 22 years since his father-in-law had set up shop in Cam, the business has been targeted several times by thieves, and, on two occasions, ram-raided.

By the time Mr Cunningham-Smith got to the shop door, the man was rounding a corner, the shop tag still hanging from the stolen machine.

He seemed to be heading for the car park of the Tesco store nearby, but the shop manager first had to go back to lock up.

He then jumped into his van and drove to the car park. When he got there, he saw the thief and another man walking into the supermarket.

Paul Cunningham, 54, the shop owner, said: “Their car was parked, engine running, in a disabled parking bay.”

The thieves did not seem to care about parking regulations.

“John had thought he would block them in the car park,” Mr Cunningham said. “But when he saw the appliance in the back of their car, he just took it out, put it in the van and drove back to the store.”

Mr Cunningham-Smith, 32, said: “I took the opportunity to steal the spin-dryer back. They may have thought they were good thieves, but I was a better thief on the day.”

In fact, the thieves may now be high and dry. The man who walked out with the appliance was caught on CCTV cameras at both A1 Appliances and Tesco. Police removed fingerprints from the machine and they have the car registration of the grey Daihatsu Charade in which they drove back past the shop.

Police are looking for a slim black man, 6ft tall, in his twenties, and a man of Eastern European appearance, of similar age and build.

Mr Cunningham-Smith says, with some relish, that the two men looked “gutted” as they drove past the shop and saw him.

A police spokesman said: “While this man’s actions led to him getting his property back, we’d always advise people to avoid getting involved in any criminal activity.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• A vicar’s wife: ‘There is no one to fight for us’
• Every little helps at the supermarket
• Ugg or Fitflop? The battle of the boots