Gas burglary: did thieves use anaesthetic on Jenson Button?

The British F1 driver Jenson Button and his wife Jessica Michibata have had their rented Saint-Tropez villa burgled, losing £300,000-worth of jewellery, including Jessica's engagement ring. The strange part is the alleged method: a "gas burglary".

Did thieves really drop anaesthetic gas into Button's air conditioning - knocking Button and Michibata out, plus their three guests - before they rifled at leisure through the couple's possessions?

What is a 'gas burglary'?

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A spokesman for Button claims he was told by Saint-Tropez police that gas burglaries are a "growing problem in the region", The Independent reports. Thieves "gas their proposed victims through the air conditioning units before breaking in".

How would that work?

According to a Daily Mail article from 2010, the thieves actually break in first. They "quietly break in or slip inside patio doors left open because of the heat". Then they "crouch down and release the gas into air conditioning units or under the victims' bedroom doors".

Really?

The BBC's Hugh Schofield is among sceptics, writing today that there has been an "awful lot of rumour" about such burglaries but "precious little hard evidence". No-one has ever appeared in court charged with using gas for a burglary and no police officer is on record about the subject, he claims.

Any other objections?

Schofield asks what gas burglars would use - and, according to Wired, the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCA) has an answer. The RCA says burglars would have to use volatile anaesthetic agents such as chloroform or ether. The catch? They would literally need "lorry-loads" - and even then it would be "unlikely" to work at a distance because the gas it produces is so weak.

What about carbon monoxide?

Wired says the RCA can't rule out the use of carbon monoxide - a gas which has caused many accidental deaths. It was responsible for the sad deaths of two British children on holiday in 2006 when it leaked from a faulty boiler.

Could that be the explanation?

Again, it seems unlikely. It would be impossible to reliably administer the right amount of carbon monoxide to stun but not kill. And non-fatal poisoning by carbon monoxide has other symptoms such as vomiting - which Button has not reported.

So gas burglaries are impossible?

The RCA concludes in its statement: "If there was a totally safe, odourless, potent, cheap anaesthetic agent available to thieves for this purpose it is likely the medical profession would know about it and be investigating its use in anaesthetic practice."

Then where do the rumours come from?

Button's spokesman says the Saint-Tropez police told him the theory. And while there is no record of the police asserting in court that gas has been used, according to the RCA this is "something that the French police say" - without producing evidence.

Any other celebrity 'victims'?

TV fashion presenters Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine, famous in the early noughties for their What Not To Wear show, claimed in 2002 that thieves broke into their Cannes villa and smothered the pair with chloroform pads.

However, as the Daily Telegraph reported at the time, there was some uncertainty as to whether the incident actually happened: neither woman could remember it. A friend of Constantine said: "They woke up one morning and their hands felt sticky, there was a funny smell in the room and they both felt hungover."