By Xinyu Yang, AIPS Young Reporter, China
RIO DE JANEIRO – There are only seven days left until the Opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. National teams and media have started to arrive in Rio, but there are still a number of security issues that need to be solved.
On July 25th, well-known Chinese 110m hurdles athlete Shi Dongpeng witnessed a theft case himself. His accompanying cameraman’s full set of equipment was stolen after a carefully designed theft.
On the evening of July 25th, Shi Dongpeng arrived in Rio with a cameraman at around 10:30 p.m. They went to their hotel in to Rio to check in. Both felt exhausted after a long flight journey from China.
All of a sudden, a local man rushed to Shi Dongpeng. He seemed drunk, and threw up over Shi before running away. Shi Dongpeng went to the restroom to clean up, while the cameraman ran out of the hotel to try to catch the drunk.
One minute later, when the cameraman came back, his full set of equipment was gone.
The two watched the surveillance video, and realized it was all a careful designed crime. When the cameraman had run out of the hotel to catch the “drunk”, his partner quickly entered the hotel and took his equipment.
They went to the police station to report the crime. It was already 2 a.m., but the police station was full of people. A local man standing at the front of the line told the cameraman a story that was even worse: a man had just put a gun to his head in his garage, and took his car.
In order to ensure the highest level of security during the 2016 Rio Olympics, Brazil’s government assured that forty thousand military soldiers had been sent out, along with forty thousand policemen. However, journalists and tourists should take special precaution of all their valuables and equipment.
