The mystery of the gassed driver
F1 driver, wife feared knocked out, but anesthesia experts are skeptical
LONDON Reports about the attacks in the south of France have circulated for years. Thieves targeting unsuspecting celebrities and other tourists pump sleeping gas into their houses or motorhomes, then, while their victims are unconscious, relieve them of their valuables.
The latest incident took place on Monday, when Formula One racing star Jenson Button and his wife Jessica Michibata were feared to have been knocked out by gas pumped into their luxury villa on the French Riviera, leaving them helpless as thieves seized her $ 500,000 engagement ring. A source told the U. K.’ s Sun newspaper: “Police have told Jenson they ’re convinced the burglars gassed the house using the airconditioning units.
“Jenson is convinced that’s what happened, too. The burglars were in the same room as him and Jessica, rifling through all their drawers.
“But they weren’t disturbed at all because the effects of the gas gives the burglars free reign.”
There were reportedly three other people in the property at the time who were also affected by the gas. As disturbing and persistent as the reports of such crimes have been, British anesthesia experts are expressing skepticism.
“Our view is that it is very unlikely because it would be so impractical,” a spokeswoman for the Royal College of Anesthetists told The Daily Telegraph.
“You would need to use a truckload of gas, and that amount would be phenomenally expensive to obtain.
“One has to ask why anyone would spend so much money on what is such an impractical method.”
The gases are so pungent that the victim would be able to smell it even if they were asleep, she added.
The robbery is the latest in what seems to be a spate of gas attacks on wealthy celebrities on the French Riviera.
In 2006 the French soccer star Patrick Vieira fell victim to a similar robbery, where thieves reportedly pumped gas into his property ’s air vents before fleeing with jewelry and his Mercedes.
The former Arsenal captain and his wife Cheryl, as well as their daughter, all awoke with splitting headaches and immediately knew something was wrong, according to reports.
Five people were arrested in connection to the theft in Nice and investigators later tracked down the missing 4x4 vehicle.
Trinny Woodhall and Susannah Constantine, the hosts of the U. K. version of the television show What Not To Wear, were prey to a similar attack four years later in Cannes, where they were allegedly smothered with chloroform.
Michael Levi, an expert in security and organized crime at the University of Cardiff, said he suspected the attackers bought the drugs on the black market from a corrupt medic or chemist.
Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: “In this case it may be that you have a gang of relatively low level criminals working with or being supplied by a chemist who has expertise on how to administer the gas without harming anyone.
“There is obviously a risk in that if you don’t administer the dosage correctly you could kill someone, or they could wake up in the middle of what you are doing,” he said.
Levi added: “You would need prior knowledge of how to administer the gas correctly, and this gang may well have experimented or done a sort of dry run on how to do it properly before.
“They key question is where this gas is coming from, and I expect they will have been looking for it in hospitals, or at large suppliers, and will have approached someone like a medic, or perhaps a former medic, who is willing to sell it to them.”
Last year, amid claims that Britons were being gassed and burgled in motorhomes, the Royal College of Anesthetists issued a statement that was similarly skeptical.
It read: “Despite the increasing numbers of reports of people being gassed in motorhomes or commercial trucks in France, and the warning put out by the Foreign Office for travellers to be aware of this danger, this College remains of the view that this is a myth.
“It is the view of the College that it would not be possible to render someone unconscious by blowing ether, chloroform or any of the currently used volatile anesthetic agents, through the window of a motorhome without their knowledge, even if they were sleeping at the time.”
Police in St. Tropez reportedly told Radio1 Europe that no such robberies had been confirmed in the past and that blood tests were being performed on Button to determine if he was indeed gassed.