What’s the most underreported story of the Olympics behind the raw sewage and the unfinished living conditions? How dangerous it is to have an ATM card in Rio. I’m talking so dangerous that there’s a chance the military police will abduct you and force you to withdraw $800. That happened to a jiu-jitsu fighter from New Zealand.
And now comes word that ATMs are being guarded as if they’re key military installations. I hate to be the guy who breaks bad news around here but, I’d just leave the ATM at home or figure out a way to hide from kidnappers.
Just look at how important these ATMs are:
Big-time security in Rio Olympic media center. Soldiers said he was guarding ATM as it was being filled. #RoadToRio pic.twitter.com/jnWIINgDtM
— Stephen Wade (@StephenWadeAP) July 31, 2016
$600? Try $800 – see below. But maybe that’s in Aussie cash.
Two Rio cops charged with kidnapping New Zealander and making him take $600 from ATM. How many other cases that we just don't hear about?
— Sebastian Smith (@SebastianAFP) July 26, 2016
A Kiwi athlete has fled Rio with his girlfriend after he was abducted by military police and forced to withdraw money from an ATM.
New Zealand jiu-jitsu fighter Jason Lee hightailed it out of Rio after he was kidnapped and extorted by military police, then harassed by nighttime raids on his apartment.
“After the first visit from the police we immediately began to talk about whether leaving was the best option. Once we had the second visit there was no other course of action,” he told New Zealand news website Stuff.
He was initially kidnapped last weekend and forced to withdraw the equivalent of $800 from an ATM by military police.
Yeah, like you can really trust the poor guys with the automatic weapons. That’s it, I just changed my mind about going to Rio. No way I’m risking it all.
Rio Olympic security a#t the ATM machine. #RoadToRio pic.twitter.com/bsCOelqBq6
— Stephen Wade (@StephenWadeAP) August 2, 2016