" Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- When Berlin resident Simone Klostermann returned from vacation and couldnât find her Mercedes SLK, she thought it had been towed. Police told her the 35,000- euro ($45,000) car had been torched. âTheyâd squirted something flammable into the carâs engine block in the gap between the windshield and the hood,â said Klostermann. âThe engine was completely destroyed.â The 34-year-oldâs experience isnât unique in the German capital. At least 29 vehicles were destroyed in arson attacks this year, most of them luxury cars, according to police. The number is already about 30 percent of the total for 2008. The latest to go up in flames was a Porsche, on Feb. 14, two days after a Mercedes was set alight in a public car park. While youths in Athens protest by throwing Molotov cocktails, in Paris by toppling barricades, and in Budapest by hurling eggs at politicians, protesters in Berlin rage at their economic plight by targeting the most expensive cars -- symbols of German wealth and power. " at bloomberg.com