Chinese hurdler Shi Dongpeng was the victim of a disgusting crime
RIO has been smashed for a multitude of problems leading up to the Olympics, but a Chinese hurdler has the right to complain more than anyone else.
GETTING robbed is bad enough at any point, but Shi Dongpeng was unluckier than most.
The Chinese hurdler is in Rio for the upcoming Olympics, and shortly after arriving in Brazil last week with a cameraman, he was allegedly accosted in the most disgusting way imaginable.
Per AIPS reports, a man rushed towards the pair and — seemingly intoxicated — vomited on both men before fleeing.
The athlete then went to a bathroom to clean himself up while the cameraman tried to chase after the perpetrator. However, when they both returned, all of the cameraman’s gear had disappeared.
Surveillance footage taken by cameras in the hotel confirmed that was no coincidence. It turned out it was all a clever ruse as footage showed the “drunk’s” accomplice taking advantage of the Chinese men’s absence to steal the unattended equipment.
Dongpeng reported the crime to police.
Rio’s high crime rate is one of the many issues the city and visiting athletes at this year’s Games face.
Last week New Zealand jiu-jitsu exponent Jason Lee said he was forced to take out a large sum of money from two ATMs at gunpoint in the Olympic host city after being kidnapped.
What did you guys get up to yesterday?
â Jason Lee (@jasonleejitsu) July 24, 2016
I got kidnapped. Go Olympics!#Rio2016
In a more detailed post on his Facebook page, Lee claims the men threatened to apprehend him if he did not meet his demands for “a large sum of money”.
“I’m not sure what’s more depressing, the fact this stuff is happening to foreigners so close to the Olympic Games or the fact that Brazilians have to live in a society that enables this absolute bullshit on a daily basis,” he wrote.
“I was threatened with arrest if I did not get in their private car and accompany them to two ATMs to withdraw a large sum of money for a bribe.
“This place is well and truly f***ked in every sense of the word imaginable.”
He describe the kidnappers as not “random people with guns, but rather official police officers on duty in full uniform”.
Last year it was reported extra security forces — more than double what was used in London in 2012 — would flood the city in an effort to combat the significant crime level.
Aussie Paralympian Liesl Tesch experienced Rio’s dangerous underbelly first hand in June when her and her physio were robbed by two men, one of whom was armed with a gun.
“It was absolutely horrific,” Tesch said afterwards. “I can see it clear as day in my own head ... it was a pistol.”
“When it actually happens to you, it actually reinforces how dangerous this city is and how lucky we are to live in Australia.”
In 2015 British sailors Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark were robbed by two men with knives at Guanabara Bay — the venue for Olympic sailing events that has also been dogged by pollution problems.
— with AAP