A PENSIONER whose car has been attacked by vandals five times in a year believes she is being targeted.

Margaret Smith, 67, of Wrekin Close, Kiddermin-ster, who had a supermarket trolley smashed through the windscreen on one occasion, was picking up the pieces again at the weekend.

This time her driver's side window was shattered between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Ms Smith said: "I'm being targeted. I'm living on my nerves and I want it stopped."

She returned home after celebrating her grandson's third birthday at 4pm, on Saturday, parking her car in a bay opposite her Birchen Coppice bungalow in the quiet residential close.

Before going to bed, she performed what has become a nightly ritual, checking from her kitchen window that her Ford Fiesta car was in one piece.

The next morning she again checked on her car, which appeared undamaged. It was only when a neighbour knocked on her door at about 10am that she discovered her car window had been smashed.

The glass in the driver's side window had been shattered and there were imprints from shoe treads on two other side windows. An empty cider bottle and beer cans were littered nearby.

Ms Smith called her daughter, Beverley Stevens, in Spennells, and she drove across town to comfort her mother.

Mrs Stevens said: "Mom couldn't sleep that night with the car outside her house and the front window broken. It's just mindless violence."

The pensioner moved from the Horsefair to make a fresh start just over a year ago and was happy in her new home until the first attack three weeks later.

Ms Smith says her rear tyre has been deliberately deflated, doors scratched and the passenger side wing mirror broken off three times, although on one occasion it may have been an accident involving a passing vehicle.

Last August, a supermarket trolley was put through her windscreen.

Each time, Ms Smith's son-in-law, who works at a town garage, has stepped in to get the damage fixed.

But her pension has been stretched to breaking point to cover the total damage of more than £350.

If her vehicle insurance premium goes any higher she might have to get rid of the car altogether. She added: "If I don't have a car it takes my independence away."

Insp Paul Crowley, of Kidderminster police, said officers were treating the incidents "extremely seriously" and had increased patrols in the area.

Witnesses or anyone who sees anything suspicious in Wrekin Close is asked to call police on 08457 444888 or ring Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.