Steve Lochte told The Associated Press by phone from his Florida home that his son called him Tuesday after arriving in the U.S. The 32-year-old swimmer was going to pick up his vehicle and buy a new wallet to replace the one that he said was stolen from him in the robbery.
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Lochte has reportedly already left Brazil and headed back to the United States, while Feigen’s whereabouts has now not been confirmed.
A US Olympic Committee spokesman said the swimmers were not in the Olympic Village on Wednesday when police arrived looking for them and seeking to fulfill a judge’s order to take away their passports.
According to statements from Lochte and the USOC, the swimmers were returning to the athletes village by taxi after a night out at the French Olympic team’s hospitality house in the Rodrigo de Freitas area in the upscale south zone of the city.
Judge Blanc also revealed that she viewed surveillance footage of the four arriving back at the Olympic Village after the reported robbery, and they didn’t look like people who had just been through an ordeal.
On Sunday, Lochte said he, Feigen and two other team mates were traveling to the Athletes’ Village in a taxi in the early hours of the morning, after a party, when armed men carrying police badges pulled them over.
As you might recall, Lochte’s description included this line: “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”.
Word of the robbery initially created confusion between Olympic and US officials.
A Brazilian judge has issued a search and seizure warrant for two of the four USA swimmers reportedly robbed in Rio de Janeiro early Sunday.
In a follow-up email to our initial exchange, Ostrow says that Lochte “gave a witness statement under oath” to police while he was in Rio.
However, Lochte’s father says he is back in the United States, and judicial sources suspect both swimmers are no longer in Brazil.
“He sat for a victim interview with the Brazilian Tourist Police, USOC Security, State Department, FBI, and anyone else that the Brazilian authorities requested to be present”, he said.
Police sources have told Reuters in recent days they have been unable to find the taxi driver or to corroborate any details provided by the swimmers. Steve Lochte said. “It’s just ridiculous”.
Ostrow has said there is no question the robbery occurred.
On his official Twitter account, Lochte said: “My hair is going back to its normal color tomorrow”, in what appeared to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to changing his appearance.
The gunmen ordered them to drop to the ground and demanded their wallets and belongings, Lochte said.
Ostrow told NBC there is no question the robbery happened as Lochte described it. “They pulled out their guns, they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground-they got down on the ground”.
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It appears that, unless Lochte is egregiously lying for reasons unknown about the robbery, Brazil is now in meltdown mode, desperate to prove that it is a “safe” country for olympics, and in order to prove it, it is willing to go as far as to arrest a USA national icon, an arrest however which may not happen.
