Australian athletes have three laptops stolen from Olympic Village
Australian athletes had laptops and other items stolen from the Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro.
The team was forced to evacuate their building in the village early Friday morning because of a fire in a trash bin in a parking lot near where the Australian contingent was staying.
When they returned, three laptops and clothing and other items were gone. From News 9 in Australia:
The Australian Olympics Committee has confirmed the theft of clothing and laptops, and immediately took precaution to have security guards installed on all floors of their building.
The country’s athletes didn’t move in to the village when they first arrived in Brazil for the Olympics, which kick off on Friday with the opening ceremonies. When Australian athletes first arrived, a mess of issues plagued the area where they were going to stay.
Team chief Kitty Chiller said problems include blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed and dirty floors in need of a massive clean.
She claimed that water has come through the ceiling resulting in large puddles on the floor around cabling and wiring.
“Due to a variety of problems in the Village, including gas, electricity and plumbing I have decided that no Australian Team member will move into our allocated building,” she said in a statement.
The mayor of Rio responded to the team’s initial refusal to stay in the village with an ill-executed joke about a kangaroo.
The team moved into the village Wednesday after the problems were fixed. With proper plumbing and now added security, perhaps their stay will be a lot smoother going forward.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
