The allegations surrounding Ryan Lochte and members of the U.S. Swim Team getting robbed at gunpoint in Rio has taken another odd turn.
Today, a Brazilian judge ordered that Lochte and James Feigen‘s passports be seized as authorities in Rio apparently attempt to further investigate the incident.
#BREAKING: Official statement from the Rio court re: order Lochte/Feigen passports be seized. pic.twitter.com/PY7wZ1gTgl
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) August 17, 2016
There is a problem though. Lochte is reportedly back in the United States and Feigen’s whereabouts are unknown after the U.S. team checked out of the Olympic Village when their events concluded this week.
Local police arrived at the athletes village Wednesday morning and asked to meet with Lochte and Feigen, and to collect their passports in order to secure further testimony, according to Patrick Sandusky, a spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee.
“The swim team moved out of the village after their competition ended, so we were not able to make the athletes available,” Sandusky said. “Additionally, as part of our standard security protocol, we do not make athlete travel plans public and therefore cannot confirm the athletes’ current location.” (via NBC 5 Chicago)
The entire incident was weird from the start as Lochte and the other swimmers claimed they were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning as they were returning to the Olympic Village from a party. Rio authorities however say inconsistencies emerged from Lochte and Feigen’s stories as Lochte claimed they were held up by one armed assailant who ended up taking $400 from him. Meanwhile, (according to authorities) Feigen claimed they were held up by a number of assailants with only one of them being armed. Additionally authorities are also citing Olympic Village surveillance footage that shows the athletes returning to their rooms around 7 am local time with their personal possessions. Some are also saying they don’t appear to be acting like they just got robbed at gunpoint which seems a little ridiculous considering they’re probably drunk.
Lochte says he didn’t initially tell U.S. officials of the robbery “because we were afraid we’d get in trouble.”
The taxi cab driver who was allegedly present during the robbery also can’t be found which could suggest A) he doesn’t exist and Lochte is full of shit or B) the cab driver is in on it which certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
The bottom line, with Lochte back in the United States and Feigen probably not far behind, we’ll probably never know what really happened.
