Jenson Button, Former F1 Champion And Wife's Vacation Home Burglarized! Gas Used To Knock Couple Out!

Burglars victimized Jenson Button, F1 driver, and his wife Jessica, while they were on vacation with friends in St. Tropez on Monday, reported USA Today.

Apparently, burglars ransacked the French Riviera villa that the couple rented as they slept. The thieves made off with jewelry, and among the items stolen was Jessica's engagement ring. Valuables worth £300,000 were purportedly stolen from the scene of the crime.

While no one was hurt in the burglary, a statement that was released after the incident said the couple were "unsurprisingly shaken" by the events.

According to Us Weekly, the robbery has taken a bizarre twist after a spokesman for Button said on Friday that anesthetic gas may have been used by the burglars so they can sneak in to the villa undetected while the couple were knocked out.

"Two men broke into the property whilst they all slept and stole a number of items of jewelry including, most upsettingly, Jessica's engagement ring," the spokesman told BBC.

"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," he added.

However, Philippe Guemas, deputy prosecutor in Draguignan, France, supposedly told a radio station that the entourage of Jenson Button, F1 driver, only assumed that gas was used in the burglary since Button felt unwell the next day. Guemas said "nothing has been established".

"To our knowledge there has never been a burglary like this in St Tropez where gas was used to knock out the victims," he said. "We have taken blood samples, which will be analysed."

The statement appears to contradict what an operations director for SRX, a home security firm operating near Button's home, said. According to him, the purported use of gas to make the burglary easier did not surprise him "at all", as he has previously received requests to install security measures to counteract such attacks.

Reports say the burglary at Jenson Button's home is still being investigated. The former F1 champion currently lives in Monacco, about 80 miles away from St. Tropez, while he drives for Team McLaren.

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