Police in Rio de Janeiro investigating a robbery case involving Ryan Lochte and a number of other swimmers from the United States’ Olympic team believe new information will show that they were not telling the truth about the incident.
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And now the authorities claim Bentz and Conger have admitted the robbery tale was “fabricated”, with the latest Associated Press reports quoting a police official who ‘spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about an ongoing probe’.
Journalists surround American Olympic swimmers Gunnar Bentz, left, and Jack Conger, center, as they leave the police station at Rio International airport early Thursday Aug. 18, 2016. A few of the swimmers then allegedly worked together to push it open when it would not open, an unnamed security official told the AP.
The swimmers were then confronted by a security guard, who was armed, but the gun was never taken out of its holster, according to the report. But in a phone interview with NBC’s Today show host Matt Lauer, Lochte said they had stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom and when they came out the taxi driver wouldn’t drive and that is when the robbery occurred.
Previous Story: Three U.S. swimmers are expected to give statements to Brazilian police today about how they were reportedly robbed early Sunday morning in Rio de Janeiro.
Lochte says they were told to get down on the ground, but he didn’t and they put a gun to his forehead.
United States of America swimming athlete Jimmy Feigen also expects to speak with officials, according to Sandusky, after an order from Judge Keyla Blanc prevented him from leaving Brazil.
Video obtained by the Daily Mail appears to be of the swimmers returning to the Olympic Village and it doesn’t that anything traumatic has happened to the group. They were basically taken out of the taxi and robbed.
He also said the taxi wasn’t pulled over but that the swimmers had made a stop at a gas station, where they were robbed.
Lochte swam in two events at the Rio Games, winning gold in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.
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Two U.S. Olympic swimmers were taken off their flight Wednesday night, ordered to stay in Brazil Thursday as police continue to ask them questions about the armed robbery they were apparently victims of last weekend. Lochte already is back in the U.S. Feigen’s whereabouts are not known, though he told the San Antonio Express-News he was still in Brazil.
