Rio police: No evidence found supporting Ryan Lochte robbery
Rio police say they have found no evidence supporting Ryan Lochte’s gunpoint robbery, reports the Associated Press.
Lochte and three other American swimmers claim to have been robbed at gunpoint Sunday. While returning to the Olympic village after a night at France’s hospitality house, the swimmers said they were stopped by individuals posing as armed guards, who threatened them before stealing some cash and wallets.
“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,” Lochte told The Today Show. “...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 cell phone, he left my credentials.”
However, a police official told the AP that Rio police have had trouble confirming the account.
The group did not call police, authorities said, and officers began investigating once they saw media reports in which Lochte's mother spoke about the robbery. Police interviewed Lochte and one other swimmer, who said they had been intoxicated and could not remember what type and color of taxi they rode in or where the robbery happened, the police official said. The swimmers also could not say what time the events occurred, or when they left the French House.
The robbery was initially a source of confusion for the USOC and IOC, who denied Lochte had been robbed Monday before reversing course.
The AP reports police are still treating the swimmers as victims and investigating the incident, but Rio police said robberies are less common in the area the swimmers were on Sunday.
“Ryan was a hundred percent cooperative and fully available when [the police] reached out to us for an interview,” his attorney told the AP. “It doesn't behoove Ryan and anyone else to make up a story.”
[AP]
