LONDON, England - August 25, 2009 - When trainspotter Stephen White noticed some interesting engines, he wasted no time in taking pictures of them for his collection.

It was the start of a bizarre sequence of events involving midnight phone calls, police raids and even, it is claimed, suspected terrorism.

Mr. White, 43, who was on a camping holiday in Wales with his sister Helen and her two children, was caught on CCTV from a nearby oil refinery as he took the photographs.

Miss White's car number plate was also noted and police traced it to her home in Lincolnshire, where a neighbor gave them her mobile phone number.

An officer then phoned her in the early hours, waking her daughter Jessica, 11, and six-year-old son Bryn, and demanded she take the photos to a police station despite her innocent explanation.

Not wishing to interrupt the family holiday, Miss White, a 41-year-old civil servant, refused.

Police swooped on the campsite the next day, and again demanded to take the photos.

But Mr. White and his sister say they were so annoyed with the officers for not believing that they were not terrorists and for harassing them that they refused to hand over the snaps.

The next day, they say, their car was pulled over by a police officer with his blue lights flashing. Again, he demanded the camera and pictures, but the family stood their ground.

Mr. White, a coach driver, said, “We were treated and hunted as if we were terrorists and a threat to national security, which was ridiculous. This has totally ruined the holiday, just because I'm a bit of a train geek who took pictures of some engines. The police were totally over the top, went to my sister's house in Lincolnshire several times and frightened my young niece and nephew. Jessica and Bryn were very scared and we had to pretend that it was just a game. They thought I was going to be carted off to prison as a terrorist threat.”

The family was camping in Carew, Pembrokeshire, when they decided to visit Milford Haven last Monday. Mr. White spotted the engines not realizing they were connected with the Murco oil depot, of which he says there was no indication.

The next day a worried neighbor rang Miss White and said police had been three times to her home in Heckington.

Mr. White, from Yatton, Somerset, said, “I suppose the police tracked us down from the registration plate on Helen's car and then it went from there. Their reaction is totally over the top. The police officers from Dyfed Powys who came to our campsite were very heavy-handed and were threatening to send Special Branch round to see us and the house. They wanted to know what I'd been doing and I tried to explain I was just a trainspotter and wasn't some sort of Al Qaeda terrorist. It's just an innocent photo, which you could find on Google Earth anyway. I've put a complaint in to the police already but they still won't let it rest.”

A spokesman for Dyfed Powys Police confirmed that officers “sought an explanation from Mr. White regarding his activities following a report of suspicious behavior at an oil refinery site in West Wales. Following an explanation from him, no further action was taken.”