Jacques Villeneuve dumbfounded over theft of father’s statue

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After letting the initial shock and anger wear off, Canadian racing great Jacques Villeneuve has more questions than answers about the theft of a statue of his father.

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Villeneuve had called the culprits “shameless, soulless beings” who “do not deserve to be called humans” after hauling off the bronze replica of his father, Gilles Villeneuve, from a museum dedicated to the motorsports legend in Berthierville, Que., earlier this month.

But now, Jacques says that he is “dumbfounded” not only about the thieves’ motive, but also about the theft itself.

Speaking to CanadaCasino.ca, Villeneuve opened up about the incident, saying the whole thing makes little sense.

“Why would someone do that? I just don’t get it. It is not like gold or diamonds which you can steal and hide and then sell. It defies belief,” he said. “It’s quite a big heavy piece and would take a lot of effort to cut it down and you’d need a big truck to take it.

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“No one noticed, which I found even crazier. How do you not notice somebody doing that? And what do you do with it? It is missing its feet. You can’t sell it because if you tried to, people would immediately realize they were the idiots who took it.

“If you melted it down, it would not be worth much. Bronze is not that valuable. So, it is pointless … financially, with the amount it took to take it, it doesn’t make sense.”

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Gilles Villeneuve raced in Formula 1 for five years, winning six races with McLaren and Ferrari. He died in 1982 from injuries sustained during a crash at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Jacques, who won the Formula 1 world championship in 1997, said having the statue taken the town situated between Montreal and Trois-Rivières shows a lack of respect not just to his family but even more to the public.

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“This is not something personal. Ultimately, it was not our statue. It was Quebec’s statue. It represented everyone in Canada. The family aspect is secondary,” he said.

“It is such a huge lack of respect. It is an emblem for the town, for Quebec, for Canada for the motor racing world.”

Villeneuve said that while he has been losing sleep over the crime, it is not out of anger.

“I’m not angry or upset,” he said. “I am just totally dumbfounded. This was my dad’s statue. But if it had been someone else’s I’d still wonder why anybody would do something like that.

“I haven’t been able to sleep not because it hurts me, it’s because I just cannot comprehend the depth, the level and the lowness of something like this.”

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