Former Top Gear host Richard Hammond and his wife claim to have been "gassed" and robbed while on holiday in France.
Hammond, his wife Mindy Etheridge and 15 of their guests, including their children, were staying at a luxurious San Tropez villa when they say they were targeted with anaesthetic gas.
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Etheridge told The Daily Express that the intruders struck just hours after a cocktail party and used the gas to knock them out so they could steal cash and jewellery.
"I'm pretty convinced we must have been gassed or something, because they were in all of the bedrooms - they went where they wanted, into each room, opening and closing the drawers, searching through handbags etc," she says.
"You have got to have some kind of confidence to do that and to be quite satisfied that people aren't going to wake up.
"That morning I slept in until eight. I didn't even wake to Richard's snoring! Nobody woke up."
The burglars made off with their 15-year-old daughter Willow's watch, as well as cash from their guests.
Etheridge says the burglars targeted neighbouring villas the same night but were caught on CCTV and arrested several days later.
But the story has been dismissed as not credible online by some who argue for a more prosaic answer.
"We too were 'gassed' & burgled in South of France. Theirs happened after a cocktail party. Ours was after a day on cocktails and rose," Dr Mark Porter tweeted.
"As ex-anaesthetist I struggle to see how anyone could safely gas a villa. More likely to be self-administered alcohol?"
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