A mother-of-three who woke in the middle of the night to find her house had been broken into and her car stolen said she was terrified by the experience.
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The Kia Carnival belonging to Dee Owen was discovered completely alight just after 1am on Friday, having been driven into the middle of a rugby field at Bonnie Doon Park in West Albury.
She is saddened by the loss of the family car, but grateful her children were not harmed by the intruders.
"They opened my side gate and pried the lock open for my internal door," she said.
"My three-year-old daughter was asleep on the couch only a few meters from the door they broke into.
"They went through my kitchen cupboards, even my medicine box.
"I'm very lucky they didn't take more and most of all very lucky that they didn't hurt me or my children."
Ms Owen was woken by her dog at 1.45am and discovered the mess the intruders had made inside the house, immediately calling triple zero.
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She said police believe the thieves first tried to steal her new Holden Commodore parked out the front of her house, but the battery was flat so they moved on to stealing the Carnival instead.
By the time she realised what had happen, emergency services were already putting out the fire in the Carnival.
Albury Civic Fire Station captain John Vandeven said the car was complete alight when firefighters arrived at the scene.
"There was nothing we could do to save the car," he said.
"It was a bit difficult to get to because of its location."
The rugby field at Bonnie Doon Park is sunk very low and the recent rain on the Border made it very wet.
Fire trucks could only reach as far as the edge of the field, before the hoses had to be walked on foot to the burning car.
Mr Vandeven said this was not the first time stolen cars had been dumped and burnt at the park.
Ms Owen said she could not comprehend what had happened to her car at first.
Despite the police officer being covered in ash after attending the scene of the car fire, she had hopes of being able to fix it and asked if it was "only a little bit burnt".
But the fire complete destroyed the car.
Albury police confirmed they are investigating the house break in and car theft, but were yet to make any arrests by Friday afternoon.
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