A DUBLIN woman whose car was torched on her driveway by two people has said she has no idea why she was targeted.

Tracey Harte was asleep in the early hours of Sunday when a neighbour started banging on her door to tell her the car was on fire.

Ms Harte called the fire brigade, who prevented the blaze from spreading to her Cabra home, but she is still wondering why her car was singled out.

“I work hard, my kids are reared and we have no trouble with anyone,” she told Independent.ie.

“I really don’t know why this happened to me.

“I was fast asleep in bed, and even though I had the window open I didn’t hear anything.

“Then I woke up to hear my neighbour screaming that the car was on fire.

“I ran out the front and there was the car ablaze in the driveway.

“I called the fire brigade and they came and put out the fire.

“They said that if the wind had been blowing a different way the house could have gone up as well, which is frightening.”

Ms Harte said she later watched CCTV footage taken from outside her house, which showed the pair targeting her car.

“My husband is mad into technology and he installed a CCTV camera years ago,” she said.

“I was slagging him at the time, saying we didn’t need it, but when we looked back on it we could see the two guys crossing the road and coming up the driveway to the car.

“They seem to have spent ages at it trying to open it, but then they break the window and use a rag and petrol to set the car on fire and they run.

“The gardai think they may have been trying to steal the car to rally it around before burning it out, but why torch it in the driveway?

“Why would they do that? I’ve never done anything wrong to anyone. It’s just very sinister.

“I work 12 hours a day as a carer, and we’re just an ordinary family.

“One of the guys even looks directly up at the camera, but it’s hard to make out any features.

“I’d love to see a face, to know who it is.

“Now I’m driving around in a hire car while I sort the insurance out on mine.

“It was an 11D Ford Fiesta. I’ll only get what its value is now, so I’ll be out of pocket adding to that to replace it.”

In the CCTV footage, the culprits can be seen crossing Carnlough Road with their hoods up, slowing to a stop at Ms Harte’s gate before walking up to the driver’s door of her car at 2.05am.

They crouch beside the Fiesta’s door, seemingly trying to open it, for more than a minute.

The pair then stand up and try the back door for around two minutes, again without success.

Next, the video shows them moving to the driver’s door again, where one of them sets fire to something before throwing it on to the driver’s seat at 2.08am, and then pouring a flammable liquid on to it.

As the car bursts into flames, the pair run back in the direction they came from.

“We need more garda patrols in Cabra,” Ms Harte said.

“There should be a greater presence on the streets.

“The gardai are going to look at the CCTV as part of their investigation.”

A garda spokesman said officers at Cabra Garda Station were investigating.

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