Ryan Lochte and 3 other US Olympians robbed in Rio de Janeiro

Impact

U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte and three teammates found themselves on the wrong end of a gun in Rio de Janeiro this week after leaving Rio Olympics territory to attend a birthday celebration elsewhere in the city, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Lochte, along with athletes Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen, were waylaid by men posing as armed police officers (or possibly just very corrupt armed police officers) who pulled them out of a taxi, flashed a badge, told them to get on the ground and stripped the Olympians of valuables.

The swimmer told NBC the men took only his wallet and were seemingly uninterested in stripping him of his credentials or cell phone:

In the lead-up to the launch of the Rio Olympics, Brazilian police officials complained funding for law enforcement had dipped to dangerous levels amid a massive recession and a homicide rate that a 2015 United Nations study concluded was the highest in the world.

The International Olympic Committee initially denied Lochte's story was true, reported BBC, but has since conceded the four athletes were robbed.