A MOTHER has spoken of her ordeal when she was stuck for hours in the New Forest with her baby after her car was broken into.

Elizabeth Horsell from Walkford, near Christchurch, described the "traumatic" and "distressing" experience of discovering her car window smashed after a walk in Holmsley on Wednesday with her eight-month-old baby, her friend Jane Beacham and their dogs Bella and Alfie.

The women parked up in separate cars and took a half-hour walk before returning to the car park and discovering the cars had been broken in to.

The 33-year-old said: “My friend and I have gone for walks in this area nearly every day for the past two years and we’ve never had a problem before.

“We go to a particular car park that is very open as we’ve heard of cars being broken into at ones nearby.

“As we approached the car park on the way back, we could hear car alarms going off and I could see my friend’s rear window was broken. As we got closer I saw that my car’s passenger window was broken too and there was glass everywhere.

“There was glass all over the baby seat and it was obvious the person had rummaged through and had also entered my friend’s boot. We called the police straight away.”

Mrs Horsell said after inspecting the damage, she and her friend found nothing taken from their cars. They then had to spend the next several hours stranded in the rain before they could get home.

“It was very upsetting to be stuck there. I wasn’t able to get my baby home until two hours or so later when all the glass had been removed, and she was screaming because she was hungry and wet,” she explained.

“It’s just frustrating that someone broke into what is clearly a baby-carrying car just for the sake of nothing at all. Neither car was displaying anything other than a coat and a dog bed, neither of which were taken. My friend now has a £6,500 bill to replace the window of her convertible. She’s devastated.”

She added: “The people who commit these crimes need to know the trauma they cause. When your car is violently damaged and invaded it’s bad enough. But we were abandoned in a remote part of the New Forest with a baby and it was devastating not being able to get her home for basic needs and listening to her crying and getting stressed as a result.”

A spokesperson for Hampshire Constabulary said the incident was under investigation and anyone with information should call 101 and quote 44150269687.