The victim of a firebombing car attack in Dundee says he has lost irreplaceable items including a pair of vintage binoculars belonging to his late grandad.
Richard Martin says his Peugeot 206 CC was torched sometime around 3am on Thursday in a seemingly random strike outside the city's Annfield Road Motors.
Fire crews rushed to the scene from the nearby Blackness Fire Station but two cars could not be saved, while two others suffered residual heat damage as a result of the blaze.
As well as writing off Richard's car and a Saab convertible alongside, the fire destroyed a hoard of designer clothing he had bought on a recent holiday along with his grandfather's prized field glasses.
"I'd put my car into the garage on Monday night and it was ready to pick up at 8am on Thursday," the 35-year-old told the Record.
"Then the garage phoned me to say there had been an incident.
"The fact is there were valuables in the car as well - a pair of vintage binoculars that were my grandad's and he died last year.
"The car is a car and you can replace that but some things can't be replaced."
Police are probing CCTV footage from around the area in order to identify the perpetrators of the blaze, which they have confirmed is being treated as suspicious.
It is understood at least four calls were made to the emergency services when the fire began at around 2.57am.
Richard says he cannot explain why his or any other car was targeted, but has praised Annfield Road Motors for how they have handled the situation.
"There's nobody that I know that would target my car per se, nobody with a vendetta," he added.
"The only thing I can think is it's just vandals, or someone targeting someone else's car and they've hit mine as well.
"I only got the car six months ago and the garage has said they'll compensate me for the value of the car. They've done their best.
"But they've also said the area has been hit quite a lot - not just them, but in general."
Staff at Annfield Road Motors say vandalism has been rife in the area, with another fire reported around the same time in Larch Street, just a few minutes away.
One worker said: "All I can say is we've come into work this morning and there's a couple of cars burnt out.
"One of the cars belongs to a friend of the garage.
"Up the road, maybe four or five streets away, there was a Land Rover set on fire too.
"There's a spate of this kind of thing in Dundee."
A Scottish Fire and Rescue spokeswoman said: "We received a call to attend a car fire at Brewery Lane at 2.57am.
"Two cars were destroyed by fire while two further cars were damaged due to radiated heat.
"We sent two appliances from Blackness Road and used two hose reel jets and breathing apparatus to extinguish the fire."
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We can confirm that an investigation is underway after officers in Dundee were called to assist the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service on Larch Street and Brewery Lane, in the early hours of Thursday, 18 November, following reports of three cars on fire.
“The fires are being treated as suspicious and enquiries remain ongoing.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting reference PS202/11118-0281.
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