A DOG walker who found her car smashed up by vandals said she was left ‘shaken’ after the damage.

Teacher Elaine Cowan, 51, took her three dogs for a walk near Barrow’s Salthouse Mills and returned to find the vehicle’s windows, windscreen and wing mirror shattered.

She had left her car for only half an hour to do the walk she does almost every day and said she was ‘knocked for six’ by the incident, which happened around 6.30am on Wednesday.

The mother-of-three, a teacher at Sandside Lodge School in Ulverston, said: “I just kept thinking ‘why?’

"Why would someone do this?’

“They must have done it in such a short space of time.

"They have just trashed it.

“It’s just shocking.

"I’m a quiet person.

"I just can’t think of a reason why someone would’ve done this."

Mrs Cowan, of Priors Path, said she was anxious about going back to the area to walk and would never park a car there again.

She said it appeared that nothing had been taken from her car but her glasses, left on the dashboard, had also been smashed.

Mrs Cowan said her car, a 2007 Hyundai Amica, had been taken by police to carry out forensic tests.

A Cumbria Police spokeswoman said: “Cumbria Police were called at approximately 6.50am on the 19th June to the report of criminal damage to a vehicle in the area of Salthouse Road, Barrow.

“Anyone with any information or who witnessed the incident is asked to contact police on 101.”