On Saturday, Olympic swimmers Ryan Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, James Feigen and Jack Conger reported a robbery at gunpoint at a gas station by muggers posing as police officers. The Rio police took umbrage with reports of crime in their fair city, and the story began to fall apart.
While Lochte was faster than his fellow athletes, escaping across the sea to the U.S., Bentz and Conger had their passports confiscated as the investigation into their wild and inconsistent story continued. Now security footage allegedly reveals the swimmers drunkenly fighting with security guards:
In a new interview with Matt Lauer, Lochte stood by his story.
Apparently, Olympians have the alcoholic tolerance of very muscular babies. This absurd story continues to unfold.
Updated (12:03 p.m.):
Looks like our guys may have tried to keep things quiet by spreading some cash around:
Updated (1:32 p.m.):
The Receipts (or a video in which the swimmers look pretty chill):
Updated (1:48 p.m.):
The AP is reporting that this international incident began when Ryan Lochte lied to his mommy:
Lochte first lied about the robbery to his mother, Ileana Lochte, who spoke with reporters, the police official said. That led to news coverage of the incident and prompted police attention.
Updated (2:25 p.m.):
TMZ is reporting that Lochte says his story was mostly true, and reports that his teammates through him under the bus are false:
Ryan Lochte did not lie about the “robbery” incident … and there are 3 minutes of missing surveillance video that will back up most of his story … this according to sources directly connected to the swimmer.
Our sources say Lochte and his team claim they were indeed taken out of a cab at gunpoint, but the video doesn’t show that because the gas station edited it out.
We’re told Lochte mistook the uniforms worn by the security guards as police uniforms, and he claims during the missing 3 minutes he and the other swimmers were pulled out of the taxi at gunpoint.
As for his claim the cab was pulled over en route, one of the sources concedes, “That’s a problem.”
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Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
