Gas Use Suspected In Break-In At Race Driver's Home. 11a-Noon ET
WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. A Formula 1 driver, Jenson Button and his model wife are the victims of a burglary that sounds like something out of a "Mission Impossible" movie. Thieves reportedly gassed the couple as they slept in their vacation villa on the French Riviera knocking them out for hours as the burglars made off with almost a half million dollars in loot. CNN's senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen has more.</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): One of the top race drivers in the world robbed when he was most vulnerable. Jenson Button was asleep in a rented villa in France, and his wife, Jessica and some friends also in the house. Jenson, Jessica and friends were on holiday in a rented villa in St. Tropez when on Monday evening 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." Button's spokesman said. The ring alone is allegedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In total, media reports say almost $500,000 worth of jewelry may have been stolen. Even more disturbing, Button believes the burglars may have used gas to knock him and his guests out according to his spokesman. St. Tropez is on the French Riviera and frequented by the rich and famous and break-ins happen quite frequently says Will Geddes who runs the International Corporate Protection Company.</s>WILL GEDDES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE PROTECTION: There have been a number of reported instance where gas has been used by intruders, burglars who have been trying to obtain access to properties, to burglarize especially when the occupants are in residence.</s>PLEITGEN: In 2006, burglars allegedly pumped sleeping gas into the Canne home of French soccer star, Patrick Vierra (ph) before breaking in. But the vice president of London's World College of Anaesthetists says he is skeptical.</s>DR. LIAM BRENNAN, VICE PRESIDENT, ROYAL COLLEGE OF ANAESTHETISTS: Anesthetic agent as we use in operating state would need to be delivered in enormous concentrates to produce the effects that has been reported and that would be very difficult -- the delivery devices that we use in an operating state would just not fit the bill for this purpose.</s>PLEITGEN: Whether or not gas was used, Button says and he and his wife and friends didn't notice the break-in as it was going on and that all of them are shaken by the events. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, London.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, joining us from New York to talk more about this is fascinating, former special agent, Jonathan Gilliam. He is also a former police officer and former Navy SEAL. All right, Jonathan, that is the most peculiar type of burglary, this use of gases and then to hear as you heard from Fred Pleitgen that there are a number of burglaries taking place there in St. Tropez. So how common is this method or how common is it becoming this method of using gas?</s>JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: Well, Fred, I'm not sold on the fact that that's what happened. I think you said it best. It's very peculiar to me. What it appears to me if I was just going off the cuff here from the facts that we have. I would have to say this looks to me like somebody who probably works in that villa. I mean, in one of the reports, it was described as a mansion. That's a lot of gas to be able to pump in. I mean, the Russians tried to do this in 2002 with a theater that was taken over by Chechnyans and they killed 130 of the hostages because it's hard to control this gas. You have to pump in such mass quantities of it. So I'm just not sold on that.</s>WHITFIELD: OK, so even without the use of gasses. We understand among the facts to be that they were in the villa. They were sleeping. They did have, you know, lots of property, jewelry, expensive things, you know, to amount so much in loot, a half million in loot. So how might somebody have done something like this while people were sleeping?</s>GILLIAM: OK, so let's go back to the gas real quick. They could have gassed individual rooms, that's possible because that makes it a little bit smaller and easy to contain. If they are -- if it's an inside job and people work at these villas, which -- this could kind of lay creams to the fact that it happens to a lot of these places because there is a lot of wealthy people that are there. They have people that work there. They could have gone in if they were serving drinks and food and they could have put stuff into food or drinks that make them tired. I mean, if anybody that's ever taken Ambien will tell you that once you're out, you're out on that stuff. So -- and then it's a simple as walking in and taking it. And if they work there, they could have keys where they are unlock the door and there is no break-in.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes, this is interesting because we are talking like you mentioned properties and the people who are attracted to St. Tropez, there is a lot of money there. So there are also a lot of cameras. I remember while a back where there was this like jewelry heist problem happening and they ended up relying on a lot of the cameras in order to finally get the people who were stealing from these jewelers there. So wouldn't there be a lot of cameras on perhaps the road ways leading up to these villas?</s>GILLIAM: There should be and that again leads to the fact that it was an inside job. I mean, somebody that's there that does not have to leave and come back, they're not going to be seen by the cameras. There are criminals, Fred, that are experts at doing things. We have bank robberies in the United States that happen here that they go in from the roof and look like construction. These things happen all of the time. With the people that were robbed, though, is they woke up from whatever haze it was and they put two what they think is two and two together, but they're confused because they don't really know. Whatever it was made them sleep right through it. They just can't imagine that.</s>WHITFIELD: It's quit the mystery. Jonathan Gilliam, thank you so much.</s>GILLIAM: You got it.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, the next hour of the NEWSROOM begins right after a short break.