WATCH: Would-be thieves captured on CCTV during Larbert 'fishing expedition'

However, the incident, which happened at The Inches just after midnight on Saturday, May 22, was captured on a resident’s CCTV system and the visible camera system was also enough to prevent the two criminals from pinching anything in the street.

The householder, who did not want to be named, said: “We were in the sitting room and didn’t know anything was going on until the dog got up and started barking at the window.

"We saw them checking out the cars in the street – there a lot of sporty cars parked there now and a new Range Rover. They looked up and saw the cameras and then looked away, hiding their faces.

"We saw one was carrying something, which we thought was a crowbar, but police later told us it was a fishing rod which they would use by sticking it through letter boxes to try and pick up keys.”

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The two men, one wearing a balaclava, then got in the hire van they came in and left.

"I don’t know if it was the cameras that put them off,” said the resident. “Or if they saw us watching them from the sitting room window, but they had a conversation with each other and then left.

"We phoned police and they were there 20 minutes later. Nothing like this has happened in the street before that I’m aware of – there was a house broken into 20 years ago, but nothing like this.”