F1 star Jenson Button gassed and robbed

BRITISH Formula 1 driver Jenson Button and his wife Jessica were burgled while on holiday on the French Riviera, with thieves making off with her engagement ring.
The couple were in a rented villa in the glitzy resort of Saint-Tropez with friends when the robbery happened on Monday evening, a spokesman for Button confirmed.

“Two men broke into the property whilst they all slept and stole a number of items of jewellery including, most upsettingly, Jessica’s engagement ring,” the spokesman said.

The thieves may have operated by pumping gas into the house through the air conditioning, he added.

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.

“Whilst unharmed everyone involved is unsurprisingly shaken by the events.”

British newspaper The Sun reported that valuables worth $630,000 were stolen in the raid.

The burglars walked around the couple’s bed as they lay unconscious, the reported added.

Three others who were staying in the home were also believed to have been rendered unconscious.

“The burglars were in the same room as him and Jessica, rifling through all their drawers,” a source was quoted as saying.

“But they weren’t disturbed at all because the effects of the gas gives the burglars free rein.

“It was the same for their three other friends — they were all completely out of it.

“The first they were aware was when they woke up groggy the next morning and realised the house had been turned upside down.

“It was a terrifying experience for them to know these criminals were actually in the room with them.”

Button, 35, is currently signed to team McLaren and lives in Monaco, along the Mediterranean coast from Saint-Tropez.

Credits: NTNEWS