Carson Battersby says he remembers hearing the racket of revving engines coming from the tree-lined roadway into his farmyard.

It was just before 7 o'clock on a Thursday morning last month.

First thought?

"My son's coming to work early today."

Battersby runs an excavating company from the farm with his son, Evan.

This first thought vanished when a Jeep Cherokee drove right past him and parked at his gas tanks. A Chevy pickup with a gooseneck trailer followed in tight behind it.

Then, another racket and there's a Volkswagen Jetta "burning into the yard" pulling up the rear.

Second thought?

"Did Evan give somebody permission to get gas, or are they lost?"

So I'm looking around. I grab a piece of pipe. 'No,' I think, 'No, I don't want to go to jail today.' - Carson Battersby

Battersby says the second thought vanished when he yelled at the driver from the Jeep Cherokee and then made clear eye contact. He doesn't believe that, until he yelled, he had even been noticed standing there.

"A that point, I knew that this is not good," he said.

"So I turned and I run into the shop and I'm thinking, 'What do I do?' Because my mom lives over there, she's 85 years old, she's in the house over there. My wife's up in the house, she doesn't know nothing what's going on. I'm thinking, 'What do I do?' You know, he sees me now, are they gonna come and get me? So I'm looking around, I grab a piece of pipe. 'No,' I think, 'No, I don't want to go to jail today.' "

'If someone is coming after you, what do you do?'

It's close to a month later and Carson Battersby, 61, is still haunted by what happened in his farmyard, near Big Shell, about 144 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

Battersby first took refuge in his shop. (CBC) In his shop, with his mother in one house and his wife in another, he set down the pipe and bolted from the outbuilding and made it to his house, about 60 metres away.

The first call was to his son, 'They're in the yard stealing,'

The second call was to the RCMP detachment 20 minutes away in Spiritwood.

Evan Battersby lives about a kilometre away. He arrived in his truck just as the convoy left the property onto the grid road, and he gave chase.

Carson got on the line with the RCMP.

"The first thing they say, 'Have you got any weapons?' And we got no weapons. And they said go hide, go in the house, lock the doors — like a coward."

CBC's Dan Zakreski talks to the Morning Edition about Carson Battersby's experience:

CBC's Dan Zakreski recounts the incident of a Big Shell, Sask., farmer's experience of a rural crime that left him frightened for his own and his family's safety. 9:48

Battersby says he still feels paralyzed by the choices he faced that morning. The Volkswagen and Jeep Cherokee made it out of his muddy yard, but the pick-up truck and trailer were jammed between the elevated gas tanks and his mother's house on the edge of his property.

"He's trying to back up with the goose neck trailer right there and he's ripping and tearing and spinning and jackknifing," he recalled.

"And I'm thinking, they're stuck right by my mom's house. I'm thinking are they gonna get out? Are they gonna go in my mom's house, while I'm cowering in my house? And it's just mayhem. "

The driver eventually revved the truck and trailer out of the mud and escaped across a field.

'It's scary, we're on our own'

Battersby has lived in the Big Shell area his entire life. He knows the backroads, the hills and the hollows, the sounds of the countryside.

Battersby says people in the country face tough choices when confronted by intruders. (CBC) "I haven't had a good night's sleep for two weeks, three weeks," he said. "The furnace kicks in. You're jumping up, running and looking out the window, opening the door. Listening."

Battersby knows that time will eventually bring back a sense of normalcy, but the fundamental questions raised by the farmyard invasion will linger.

"I will be going to jail if I defend myself. I know that, so I'm screwed," he said.

"If someone is coming after you, what do you do? If there's one guy, OK, you got a chance. But when you're an old guy like me and you got five, six — there was nine people in my yard at one point –it's scary. We're on our own."

RCMP say the events at Battersby's farm were part of a larger series of incidents in the area at the same time.

'Secure the safety of yourself and family'

On Sept. 12, it sent out a crime watch advisory concerning the theft of two trucks and a car from the Spiritwood area. The advisory added that "the suspects in the vehicles may be in possession of firearms."

RCMP spokesperson Jessica Cantos says it proved to be a complex investigation involving detachments at Spiritwood, Big River and the Ahtahkakoop First Nation, multiple crime scenes and numerous possible suspects.

RCMP eventually arrested three suspects. Two women from the Pelican Lake First Nation and a man from Saskatoon face charges that include possessing stolen property, dangerous driving and resisting arrest.

They range in age from their early 20s to mid-40s. All three will return to provincial court in Prince Albert and on the Ahtahkakoop First Nation later this month.

Cantos says the RCMP is aware of the concerns of people who live in rural Saskatchewan, and has advice for people who find intruders on their property.

"Secure the safety of yourself and family first and foremost," she said in an interview, then call 911 when in a safe location and, if possible, observe and record as many details of the incident as possible.

Finally, she says, avoid confrontation if possible.

Cantos says RCMP would not elaborate on what it meant to "secure the safety of yourself and family."

"It's a complex question that has a lot of moving parts and takes a lot of variables and circumstances," she said. "That's best left to legal experts to discuss."