Furthermore, the men can be seen carrying the very items that they said were stolen in the “robbery”, so yeah I’d say that’s pretty suspicious. Police have found little evidence so far to support their accounts.
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Lochte has already left Brazil and arrived in the USA, according to American officials.
Lochte told the TODAY Show’s Matt Lauer in a telephone interview Wednesday that he returned from Rio Wednesday, and no one told him he should stay in Brazil. They also point to “inconsistencies” in the swimmers’ accounts. Whatever the case may be, there is hope that the questioning of Congar and Bentz will provide Blanc De Cnop and Brazilian authorities with necessary information to catch the criminals or close the case.
Earlier on Wednesday, a judge had ordered police to seize the passports of Lochte and Feigen to prevent them leaving the country, apparently unaware that Lochte had already left. Lochte told him he his three teammates were victims. Feigens’ whereabouts are unknown.
But CCTV recordings appear to show the swimmers returning to the Olympic village at 07:00 local time.
However, Olympic officials have said police are still looking for key witnesses, including the driver of the taxi in question.
The men also said the robbery took place on the way home from a club, which they left at 4 a.m.
The allegations made by the swimmers were a setback for Brazilian authorities who are carrying out the biggest security operation in the nation’s history. However, the investigation is still ongoing, and Lochte’s lawyer, Jeff Ostrow, insists that his version of events is the correct one.
“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 NBC.
Bentz’ father, Steve Bentz, declined comment when reached by the AP.
“As part of our standard security protocol, we do not make athlete travel plans public and therefore can not confirm the athletes’ current location”, the Olympic official said in a statement.
NBC reported Wednesday night that Lochte backed off some of his earlier claims.
His statement was met with disbelief from authorities, leading a Brazilian judge to order Lochte’s passport be seized.
Jack Conger was stopped from boarding a flight at Rio de Janeiro airport. They did not look disturbed or shaken up by any potential robbery that may have happened, but were actually laughing and joking.
“If they don’t like the level of the detail that they’ve gotten from the statement. then call me and we can give them more”.
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“They can do and say whatever they want down there”.
