U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte was among the four Olympians robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning in Rio.
Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen were returning from a party at Club France, the French hospitality house, in the upscale Lagoa neighborhood when a group of men posing as police officers stopped their taxi.
“Their taxi was stopped by individuals posing as armed police officers who demanded the athletes’ money and other personal belongings,” a spokesman for the U.S.O.C. said. “All four athletes are safe and cooperating with authorities.”
Lochte said when the "officers" ordered the men to get on the ground he refused and one of the crooks cocked his gun and put it against his forehead.
“We got pulled over, in the taxi, and these guys came out with a badge, a police badge — no lights, no nothing, just a police badge — and they pulled us over,” he said. “They pulled out their guns, they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground — they got down on the ground. I refused — I was like, we didn’t do anything wrong, so — I’m not getting down on the ground.
“And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead, and he said, ‘Get down,’ and I put my hands up. I was like, whatever. He took our money, he took my wallet — he left my cellphone, he left my credentials.”
The Olympic Committee has put an emphasis on crime in Rio, beefing up the security squads surrounding Olympic Park and some of the Olympic Villages reportedly look like "military compounds"
Despite the added measures, this isn't the first time we've heard some horror stories out of Rio- just this week a bus carrying members of the media was shot at while leaving a women's basketball game.
And the chief of security was mugged at knife point on the night of the opening ceremony. THE CHIEF OF SECURITY.
[Via]
