The reports say they were found by a farmer, near to RAF Fairford.
I donât remember seeing they were actually on the base. It seems quite possible they were unaware of the base.
And given the past thefts from farms I suspect that Fort Knox is an easier target that some Farmer âgerrof my laandâ Giles! 
It certainly is out my way where farmers are often chassé members and the Gendarmes are bored.
A lady farmer, on her way back from a party, found her way blocked by 3 vans with strange markings. She saw some people scatter across a field.
She rang MoD police but they didnât answer, so she rang 999.
She thinks she foiled a terrorist plot.
No matter what she thought was happening, she very likely stopped some poor sod from being robbed.
Especially as she says the police arrived inside 10 minutes, which would not normally be the case for rural theft.
She thinks that⊠fine.
And the media chose to run with that angle? No real surprise.
I am guessing, on zero evidence apart from news reports available to us all, that they were chancers out on the nick, rather than the Trumpton regiment of Al Qaida.
As @Debby_Wade already said, better to assume the worst early on, just in case, but from here?
Vance is convinced itâs an Iranian plot, although itâs not clear if he has any evidence of that.
Vance is a lunatic
He heard it from his boss 
Donât sit on the fence, vero, tell us what you really think.
In the mid noughties I was scouting out a new mountain bike trail locally, and following an OS map had ridden part way onto a farm. The farmer had decided to move the footpath without notification and I had gone a little way along the previous path when he confronted me. I was in full MTB gear including helmet, and so when he set about my head with his stick it was ineffective. 
I once had a lot of sympathy for farmers, but they arenât what they were, and I definitely donât any more.
If they have evidence or indeed had been , tracking, these lads as they claim, there isnât a hope in hell that they wouldnât be shouting it from the rooftops.
As pointed out, terrorism suspects donât get out on bail.
Trump never saw an open mic as other than an opportunity ..facts are elastic bands . . Vance and all US politicians follow the great man whatever ⊠Now the one UK people should be more anxious about was Wes Streeting .. As has been said ..Itâs better to keep ones mouth closed when not sure ..for fear of appearing foolish ,then to open ones mouth and remove all doubt
It is all helping Farage though.
He has already said (wrongly) that it was a plot by boat migrants etc etc.
I guess he is hoping to do a Trump/Bannon âflood the zoneâ stunt. So long as we call him an idiot for telling lies about immigrants he keeps his fans. If we talk about foreign bribes he loses fans.
Maybe they were looking for Clarksonâs place and got lost. Gerald would have seen them off
Well what I have learned from this is, if there are any suspicious people around my house or vehicle, I shall call it in as terrorism as the police arrive in 10 minutes. Whereas when my van was broken into and I identified the vehicle the thieves were using a dark green Volvo estate V40, they never bothered coming out at all.
The old joke?
Man rings 999 âHelp!! there are thieves in my shedâ
Operator âNo vehicles in your area, we will be there in the morningâ
Hangs up.
Man rings again âHelp! I think there are terrorists out there!â
Police cars arrive and helicopter on scene in two minutes.
Copper: âI thought you said they were terrorists?â
Man âI thought you said there were no vehicles around?â
The other version is âIâve got a gun and Iâm going to sort them outâ. Cue police arriving moments later to find man in his house with no gun etc.
For me, the problem with the fuel thieving is that the police would have all necessary evidence, as someone has said, for going equipped, or maybe an offence under the Criminal Attempts Act - more than merely preparatory. So they could have been charged and bailed or remanded.