US swimmer Ryan Lochte and three friends were riding back to the Olympic village in a taxi when men dressed as policemen demanded all their cash and credit cards at gunpoint. No Olympic medals were stolen.
The four swimmers are “safe and cooperating with the authorities,” said US Olympics Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky.
Lochte, in an interview with NBC news:
“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 said. “They pulled out their guns, they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground — they got down on the ground. I refused, I was like we didn’t do anything wrong, so — I’m not getting down on the ground.”
Lochte continued, “And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, ‘Get down,’ and I put my hands up, I was like ‘whatever.’ He took our money, he took my wallet — he left my cell phone, he left my credentials.”