Richard Hammond and his family were burgled while on holiday in southeast France in 2018, with the former Top Gear star believing they had been gassed before intruders ransacked their belongings. Richard, 56, his now-ex-wife Mindy Hammond, their daughter Willow and a group of friends were staying in a villa in Saint-Tropez when they were targeted by thieves.
Mindy's horror story
Mindy described the experience as a "horror story", revealing how she almost came face to face with the intruders. After hearing a door shut downstairs, Mindy went to investigate and heard a "male voice behind the door". However, believing it was one of the other couples they were staying with, she headed back to bed. It was only later that she realised it must have been the voice of one of the burglars.
"That just makes my blood run cold. I could have easily walked in and it could have been unpleasant," she told the Sunday Express at the time.
Cash and watch stolen
It was just days into their stay that they were robbed, with the 15 guests realising that cash had been taken from their wallets and purses. Richard and Mindy's daughter Willow, who was 15 at the time, also realised her watch was missing.
"I thought back on it and realised it was odd, because the first thing I noticed when I woke up was our bedroom door was open, as was everybody else's," Mindy continued. "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.
"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."
Police patrol and arrests
Anaesthetic gas had reportedly been used in the area before, with Formula 1 driver Jenson Button among those previously suspected of falling victim to it. She revealed that everyone in the house struggled to wake up the following morning, admitting that even Richard's snoring failed to rouse her.
They later discovered that the neighbouring property had also been burgled that same night, prompting the owner of their villa to contact police, who patrolled the area that evening. "We also employed a security guard for the rest of the holiday, night watch, to reassure everybody," Mindy revealed. Two of the intruders were caught on camera and were arrested by police within 48 hours of the break-in.
"It's particularly worrying when you have a teenage girl who knows that her bedside table has been rifled through while she was sleeping – that's not very nice at all." The mum-of-two added: "The other worry for all the wives was that the husbands think, 'We are going to stay up all night because we are dads and husbands and have to protect our families'. That could have ended up in a very bad situation if there was a confrontation. There would have been too much emotion involved."
