It's not likely a pair of Keystone crooks is going to make it onto a best-of list for criminals anytime soon, after botching a break-in at the Esso refinery in Port Moody.

The bizarre set of events began Sunday night after a security guard at the processing centre on Ioco Road came across an abandoned truck in the north section of the compound, near the storage lockers used by maintenance workers.

The truck appeared to have smashed into a pole, suffering extensive damage to the front and driver's side window, and had various pieces of forest debris lodged in its undercarriage.

The Port Moody Police Department was called and quickly discovered the car had been stolen from Surrey on Jan. 3.

The vehicle was towed from the scene, and the officer left to go to another call.

But that was only the beginning of the incident.

An hour later, the security guard called police back after spotting two men inside the secure compound.

This time the department's K9 unit was called to track the suspects.

One man was eventually arrested outside of another stolen vehicle the thieves had crashed.

The suspect was suffering from various injuries and was treated at hospital.

The second suspect managed to get away.

Eventually, police discovered that multiple portable offices, along with several tool-storage containers and vehicles, had been broken into. In addition, the thieves attempted to steal three separate work vehicles, but either crashed them, got them stuck in the mud or blew tires while trying to flee with the stolen goods. Investigators believe the main targets of the attempted thefts were tools and laptops.

The department sent out this tweet Monday morning about the incident: "One in custody after elaborate bne at the Ioco refinery. Due to size of property,@cqrcmp and @ deltapolice assist. Sabre and dpd dog deployed."

Police said the man arrested is a 40-year-old Burnaby resident with a long history of property crime. His name has not been released.

Police also believe the suspects cut the locks off the old service road gates to gain access to the area. It's unclear if they stole anything.

jdeutsch@thenownews.com