Maybe it was believable because of previous accounts of robbery/theft during the Olympics?
Isn’t it more likely he lied because he didn’t think a “Third World” gas station would have video surveillance to disprove his claims?
I’ll be surprised if there aren’t semi-groveling apologies to the Brazilians and big fines paid down the line. Whether or not there are team suspensions and a push to rescind medals remains to be seen (doubt the latter will occur).
Grovelling appolgy:
Payment to charity for offence caused:
So basically they probably weren’t robbed but they were kidnapped and held for ransom. Maybe its just me but I’m not feeling much better about the police and officials in Brazil than I was before when I figured it was just a normal robbery blown out of proportion.
My wife loves the idea that he originally just told his mom the truth: some guy with a gun flashed a badge, but he totally wasn’t a cop, and he robbed me; and we didn’t report it to the police, because we were afraid we’d get in trouble.
Because – well, that’s all technically correct, isn’t it? I mean, if a security guard uses the threat of force to take your property from you as restitution, then, sure, justice was done by someone who isn’t a cop but does have a badge and a gun; and you of course don’t go to the police, because that guard was fining you on his own initiative for your variousness sundry achievements in wrongdoing.
Reminds me of the bit in 30 ROCK where Liz’s ex-boyfriend mentions that his cousin “broke his ankle running from some black guys that pulled a gun on him.”
“Now, why is it important to tell me that the muggers were black?”
“They weren’t muggers; they were cops.”
“So why don’t you just say he was running from some cops?”
“I dunno. I mean, you’re a racist for assuming that they weren’t cops.”
I want to know so much more, because there are still strange things about the story. I’ve heard both that the guard didn’t take his gun out and that he did. I’d also love to hear an interview with Ryan Lochte’s mom.
I also want to know more about the “donation” that Jimmy Feigen is making, is it to an actual charity or is it to a “charity”? Can the average Brazilian do that to get out of trouble? Or the average foreigner? Or just Olympic athletes?
The story I read this morning was that they were being held to wait for the cops but they offered money as restitution so they could leave before the cops arrived. It may be a little shady but I think “kidnapped” is a little hyperbolic. I mean they tore down a sign and pissed on the wall. Maybe broke some stuff in the washrooms. And you going to say they were kidnapped because they weren’t allowed to just leave?
Wiki says detaining someone under Citizen’s Arrest is, in fact, legal in Brazil.
Also, to be clear I think that all four should get whatever appropriate punishment, it is shameful that they vandalized a gas station and lied about it. But it’s just strange to me that instead of paying government fines, that one of them wasn’t allowed to have his passport until he donated to a charity. I don’t know if that’s how the legal process is in Rio, or that’s just how it actually is, or if that’s just how it is for certain people.
How it is for certain people – sort of like “Hello, commissioner, this is the Justice Ministry, we have the Olympic Committee rep and the Embassy on conference call… let’s figure a way to get this mess dealt with without anyone having to go to court…”
I think the cops wanted the truth to come out, and now that it has they’ll ease up on the actual charging and punishment, is all. Especially since two of the offenders have left the country.
FYI, his apology is here on Instagram.
He would have gotten away with it, too. If it wasn’t for those medaling kids.
No lucrative endorsement deals for you, Ryan.
Bravo!
Whelp, it looks like I owe you folks an apology.
I guess Ryan IS smarter than a fence post.
I’m going back to lurking. Its much safer that way.
I’m picturing a splitscreen ad showing kids in two classrooms.
“Hi, I’m Michael Phelps. You guys want to grab a Coca-Cola with me?”
“YAAAAAAY!”
“Hi, I’m Ryan Lochte. <beat> Is Pepsi okay?”
“BOOOOOO!”
“When it comes to drinking, no one knows more about bad decisions than Ryan Lochte; enter our contest for you and your friends to have a Coca-Cola with Michael Phelps!”
Close to it; close enough for me. Flat-out arrest them or fine them through a court for what they did and I have no issue with it. But the way I’m reading it looks more like basic extortion than anything else.
It may lower his value but I don’t think it will totally destroy it.
No, I think this is enough of a stain on his reputation that he won’t get endorsement deals. Plus even with twelve medals he’s second to Michael Phelps.
Kidnap is hyperbole. But it’s not clear it wasn’t a robbery. The Brazilian reports said vandalized a bathroom, bathroom seemed pretty completely intact on NBC video report, sign in the hall damaged. And it’s still not clear how much money changed hands.
Lochte is a jerk for telling a story on international TV of a pure, ‘minding own business when…’ robbery (where he also kinda sounded like the cool guy under pressure) when it was really a murky incident involving drunken foolishness.
It doesn’t actually seem however that the story was ‘made up’ as in completely imaginary or what happened couldn’t possibility be viewed as armed robbery. And the gas station people and Brazilian authorities don’t seem to have been completely ‘candid’ about everything that happened either: cutting out a big portion of a tape you release to start a media/internet frenzy by ‘proving’ somebody else is lying is a big red flag.
Who would have guessed that being a drunken douche is a traumatic experience?