The Daily Mail Online has released security footage of Ryan Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, Jimmy Feigen, and Jack Conger entering the Olympic Village after Sunday morning’s gunpoint robbery.
In the footage, timestamped 6:56 am on Sunday, the athletes walk straight through security, Bentz and Lochte without remembering to take off their belts, and Feigen looking very red in the face.
At 2:25 am, Lochte posted a video of himself and Brazilian Olympic swimmer Thiago Pereira, who had invited them to an all-night clubbing event at the France hospitality house in Rio’s upmarket Lagoa district.
The event lasted from 11 pm to 5 am, though the police have not released the exact time of the incident.
After leaving the party, the four American swimmers bought popcorn from a street vendor and hailed a cab.
Then, Lochte told NBC that the taxi was pulled over, and a group of men impersonating police pulled out their guns and forced the swimmers down on the ground, taking their wallets.
Police sources suspect that the taxi driver may have tipped off the robbers about the wealth of the passengers.
The swimmers did not initially tell the U.S. Olympic Committee about the armed robbery, nor did they inform the police, leading to confusion when the story broke. At first, the IOC denied the event took place, as did some of the USA Swimming coaching staff. However, the denial seems to have stemmed from unawareness on their part (because the swimmers didn’t tell them) rather than any type of malice.
I bet you at least 2 of the 4 were really smashed and don’t even remember what happen that night.
If they don’t remember anything, they shouldn’t have lied about getting robbed at gunpoint etc etc
Just a thought- their intoxication could explain a lot. For example, they had trouble remembering details – pretty common after a night of drinking. They were goofing around – also pretty common after drinking. In fact, because they were drunk, and they left the situation safely, they might have been having a bit of an adrenaline high. Like, “can you believe that just happened, man?!”
On a separate note, did the Rio police actually expect to find the robbers? How many unsolved muggings must there be? Seems unrealistic to expect to catch these guy(s).
But, who knows? I hope they’re not lying and that this is just a political play by the Rio police to save face. We… Read more »
Laura– totally agree. Often a traumatic experience + alcohol means the mind doesn’t process the gravity of the traumatic experience initially. Which is why they could have had more of the “can’t believe that just happened “adrenaline response of laughing as they came back to the village
Or they were never robbed when they were too drunk to remember anything.
They gave away their cash to some nice looking Brazilian chicks.
+I DONT DOUBT IT ,,, I WAS ROBBED,,, BY THE POLICE, AT (MACHINE) GUN POINT,,,,IN CARACAS, VENEZUELA,,,
I KNOW ITS A DIFFERENT COUNTRY, BUT SIMILAR AS HELL!
Police do this even in Bangkok – i experienced it first hand but not at gun point .
I know it’s not Brazil, but some black men in USA were even killed by the police!!
Shock horror!
I get a little tired of hearing that swimmers are stupid Lochte did a clinic for us and he was awesome. He did an excellent job and was very articulate and motivating. you know jessica simpson, another reality star, is laughung all the way to the bank with her clothing line!!
Exactly my thoughts. It would be very easy to look a fool on a reality show.
Hate the possibility, but truly Lochte has personal issues from being the ultimate in the shadow guy for so long.
I saw some of his interviews last week before the robbery, thought he was kind of fame arrogant and off somewhat.
Hope he didn’t make this stuff up, could be huge consequences . . .
I hope this is just a case of corruption and cover-up with the RIO police, but, Lochte is pretty stupid and very arrogant so it wouldn’t surprise me if the whole thing was made up and he wasn’t bright enough to think that the story would be scrutinized. The “whatever” statement when told to get on the ground sounds like bs. Btw, if you don’t believe my comments about his stupidity, watch some clips from his reality show.
I know I am just speculating and I love the swimming team, however this might be a cover up story for places and actions they were not supposed to be doing in the first place, maybe they went to a brothel and the classing “I got robbed” story was the first one to come to mind when questioned about their whereabouts…
Nobody every accused Lochte of being a genius, so I guess Conger, Feigen and Bentz are also operating from a gray matter deficit, as well? Too many problems with these stories, their actions being inconsistent with the conduct of people just having been held up, etc. IF (and I don’t know) they made up this story, how could they EV-ER think it would not eventually come out? High profile athletes from the US being held up would certainly be fully investigated and they HAD to know that every aspect of their claims would be scrutinized. You have to wonder if Lochte’s need for attention drove what started out as an attention seeking claim and the others felt compelled to go… Read more »