Richard Hammond and his wife were gassed and robbed in their French holiday villa.
The 48-year-old ‘Grand Tour’ star and his spouse Mindy were staying in Saint-Tropez with a number of other guests, including their children, last month and the burglars struck while they were all asleep.
Mindy told the Sunday Express: "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.
"That morning I slept in until eight. I didn’t even wake to Richard’s snoring ! Nobody woke up. It turned out they had burgled the neighbouring property as well in the same night."
Everyone only realised they had been robbed, when Richard and Mindy’s 15-year-old daughter Willow couldn’t find her watch the next day.
Mindy said: "We realised something was wrong when Willow couldn’t find her watch the next day, but we thought she’d just left it somewhere, or maybe one of the teenagers had been sleepwalking in the night.
"It wasn’t until myself and the other mums were taking the kids to the beach that Richard called and said, ‘Have you looked in your purses?’. We all looked in our purses and wallets and all the cash had gone. Nothing else had been stolen. "
And Mindy, 53, also revealed she had a very lucky escape as she heard voices downstairs before she went to bed but presumed it was some of the other 15 guests so did not investigate.
She said: "The real horror story for me was that the night before we were late to bed and I heard a door downstairs shut. I thought, ‘That’s a bit bizarre’, and decided I had to check it."
"I went downstairs and into the hallway. The door into the living room was shut but I heard a male voice behind the door. I thought it was another couple staying up and went back to bed.
"Actually, it was the burglars. That just makes my blood run cold. I could have easily walked in and it could have been unpleasant."
The burglars targeted neighbouring villas the same night but were caught on CCTV and arrested several days later.
Richard Hammond and wife gassed and robbed in holiday villa
