Jenson Button, Wife, Gassed and Robbed in France
Jenson Button and his new wife were the target of apparent Bond villains last weekend after robbers allegedly knocked the couple and their guests out with gas pumped in through the vents and made away with $465,000 in jewelry, the BBC reported.
The Formula One driver, his wife and their guests, who were all staying in St. Tropez, weren’t injured in the robbery. A spokesman for Button muddled things further (emphasis ours):
“The police have indicated that this has become a growing problem in the region with perpetrators going so far as to gas their proposed victims through the air conditioning units before breaking in.”
So you’re saying this happens a lot? That doesn’t sound right.
Local officials quoted in the story by the BBC were skeptical of the claims.
“To our knowledge there has never been a burglary like this in St Tropez where gas was used to knock out the victims,” said Philippe Guemas, deputy prosecutor in Draguignan, France. “We have taken blood samples, which will be analysed.”
And anesthesiologists weren’t as hot on the idea too. The BBC reported that a spokesman for the Royal College of Anaesthetists said it was “highly unlikely” the group had been rendered unconscious by anaesthetic gas.
It would require “massive amounts of gas” to knock out those people.
“When you combine that with the fact that these gases are expensive and difficult to get hold of, we are very skeptical.”
More by Aaron Cole
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Yeah, it's just not close to being plausible. There is a reason why anesthesia is administered by medical personnel with years of specialized training - the line between unconsciousness and death is very fine. Likely what happened is the thieves followed them home while they were drunk or otherwise inebriated and cleared out their valuables while they were passed out in a drunken stupor. The "we got gassed" is a concoction either they or their PR people (including the others who claim likewise) came up with to save face.
Surprised it doesn't happen more often to be honest.
$400K worth of stuff in your house? If they did that to me, they'd get a couple of laptops, a bunch of video games, and a decent mountain bike. Now I'm depressed.
How old is that picture? I can't recall an F1 car ever being refueled at what looks like the side of the road. If this is the pit lane, why is no one changing the tires? Did they ever do refueling on the Start/Finish line? More than just the robbery seems fishy here!