Jenson Button’s wife reveals London thief stole $333,000 worth of valuables

Jenson Button’s wife, Brittny Button, was targeted by a thief in London following a romantic Valentine’s Day getaway with the former F1 driver. The model’s Goyard suitcase, which contained more than $333,000 worth of handbags, jewelry and sentimental items, was swiped outside London’s St Pancras station in February.

She told the Daily Mail she has “no interest” in returning to the UK after the brazen daylight robbery. “I was kind of shocked. How like unsecure everything felt [in London] just so many people, [and] so chaotic,” she said, noting that her husband told her to get in the car while he helped the chauffeur load their bags. “I thought, ‘Should I have brought my carry on back here with me?’ Because Jenson can be a little bit like not super careful too trusting and a little too relaxed.’

The moment the suitcase was taken

Jenson briefly turned his back on Brittny’s designer carry-on suitcase to load his own bag into the front seat when the criminal swooped in. “He had his back on mine, and a guy just came and swooped it. We didn’t even see him do it,” she explained. “So they were probably watching us. We had no idea until Jenson went, ‘Wait where is your bag’ and he raced off trying to find it, but he [the thief] was already gone.”

The interior designer said she immediately started crying after the “traumatizing” incident, and headed back to the family’s home in California. “I just started crying, I was a little upset with Jenson because I felt like he kind of dropped the ball a little but it’s not his fault someone was watching us,” she said. “He also did get his bag stolen a few months ago in a car park in London … It definitely was shocking that I just didn’t think. I’m normally pretty cautious when I’m out in public and traveling, but I just didn’t think that there were gangs literally just waiting for people and watching.”

Thief later arrested

A 41-year-old man named Mourad Aid was arrested a few days later and pleaded guilty to the robbery, the tabloid reported. However, the items had already been listed online by the time he was found. “A lot of people assume, ‘Your husband bought you those’ but actually I bought about half of them and I worked really hard and to have someone come up to me and take them from me – it’s just frustrating,” the mother-of-two said.

“And I know people are going to say, first world problems, but whether you’re getting robbed of something that’s not worth a lot of value. If it’s sentimental, it’s sentimental,” she went on. “My dad was a police officer, so I was raised not to steal from people. I would rather have less and feel good about myself than steal from people and take what isn’t mine.”

This incident comes 10 years after thieves broke into Jenson’s home and stole more than $300,000 worth of jewelry from his then-wife, Jessica Michibata. The criminals reportedly pumped gas into the air conditioning before breaking into their villa in the south of France.