anyone following this story???
The story surrounding the purported kidnapping of Australian golfer Robert Allenby in Honolulu just got a little more bizarre, after a witness told a different version of events.
Allenby said Saturday that he had been robbed, beaten and dumped in a park on Friday night when he visited a bar after missing the cut in the Sony Open. Appearing battered and bruised on Australia's morning television show Sunrise Monday, Allenby said the attack left him with cuts and a deep scrape on his forehead, and compared his ordeal to the Liam Neeson movie Taken.
"You think ... that happens in the movie, not real life," Allenby told The Associated Press by phone. "I'm just happy to be alive."
Allenby posted a photo to his private Facebook account showing a bloodied scrape on his forehead and the bridge of his nose. He said that came from being tossed from the trunk of a car. He said the bruise on his left eye must have come from being beaten in the car.
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"I don't know what they hit me with between the eyeballs, whether a fist or a baseball bat," he said. "Whatever it was, it hurts."
Golf Channel reported during the Sony Open telecast that Allenby was in a wine bar Friday night when he became separated from his caddie and a friend from Australia. The caddie told the network that Allenby was beaten, robbed of his cellphone, cash and ************ and driven some six miles away and dumped in a park.
Contacted by Australian Associated Press, Allenby said he might have been drugged in the Amuse Wine Bar in Waikiki Beach and taken to an underground garage where he was robbed and thrown into the trunk of a car. "I didn't think I was going to survive this one," Allenby told AAP.
He said a homeless woman in the park came to his rescue and told him she saw him thrown out of the car. He said a retired military man paid for a taxi to get him back to his hotel. In a new twist, the homeless woman, Charade Keane, gave Nine News Australia a different account of the incident on Monday evening.
Keane said she found Allenby a block away from the bar, not six miles, where he was trying to pay two men $500 to get his belongings back. She told Nine News he requested she use his remaining *********** to withdraw the money to pay the men off. When the men became aggressive, she helped Allenby leave the situation in a cab with a retired military man. The man reportedly paid for the taxi back to his hotel at Waialae Country Club.
The 43-year-old golfer said the FBI was investigating, yet FBI Special Agent Tom Simon, of the Honolulu division, told the Herald Sun his agency did not have the power to investigate the matter. "We have no jurisdiction for a kidnapping because it did not cross state borders,” he said.
A Honolulu police spokesman told Nine News Australia that men were spotted on CCTV buying alcohol with Allenby's stolen ************, yet the golfer says he does not recognise the men. Honolulu television station KHON-2 said police were investigating it as a second-degree robbery.
Stuart Appleby, a fellow Australian player, said he called Allenby's hotel room Saturday morning and that Allenby was trying to reconstruct what happened. Appleby did not want to disclose what he said because "I don't know how straight his brain is."
The strange sequence of events has led many on social media to question Allenby's story
The story surrounding the purported kidnapping of Australian golfer Robert Allenby in Honolulu just got a little more bizarre, after a witness told a different version of events.Allenby said Saturday that he had been robbed, beaten and dumped in a park on Friday night when he visited a bar after missing the cut in the Sony Open. Appearing battered and bruised on Australia's morning television show Sunrise Monday, Allenby said the attack left him with cuts and a deep scrape on his forehead, and compared his ordeal to the Liam Neeson movie Taken.
"You think ... that happens in the movie, not real life," Allenby told The Associated Press by phone. "I'm just happy to be alive."
Allenby posted a photo to his private Facebook account showing a bloodied scrape on his forehead and the bridge of his nose. He said that came from being tossed from the trunk of a car. He said the bruise on his left eye must have come from being beaten in the car.
See also: Army couple moves Hawaii wedding for Obama's golf game
"I don't know what they hit me with between the eyeballs, whether a fist or a baseball bat," he said. "Whatever it was, it hurts."
Golf Channel reported during the Sony Open telecast that Allenby was in a wine bar Friday night when he became separated from his caddie and a friend from Australia. The caddie told the network that Allenby was beaten, robbed of his cellphone, cash and ************ and driven some six miles away and dumped in a park.
Contacted by Australian Associated Press, Allenby said he might have been drugged in the Amuse Wine Bar in Waikiki Beach and taken to an underground garage where he was robbed and thrown into the trunk of a car. "I didn't think I was going to survive this one," Allenby told AAP.
He said a homeless woman in the park came to his rescue and told him she saw him thrown out of the car. He said a retired military man paid for a taxi to get him back to his hotel. In a new twist, the homeless woman, Charade Keane, gave Nine News Australia a different account of the incident on Monday evening.
Keane said she found Allenby a block away from the bar, not six miles, where he was trying to pay two men $500 to get his belongings back. She told Nine News he requested she use his remaining *********** to withdraw the money to pay the men off. When the men became aggressive, she helped Allenby leave the situation in a cab with a retired military man. The man reportedly paid for the taxi back to his hotel at Waialae Country Club.
The 43-year-old golfer said the FBI was investigating, yet FBI Special Agent Tom Simon, of the Honolulu division, told the Herald Sun his agency did not have the power to investigate the matter. "We have no jurisdiction for a kidnapping because it did not cross state borders,” he said.
A Honolulu police spokesman told Nine News Australia that men were spotted on CCTV buying alcohol with Allenby's stolen ************, yet the golfer says he does not recognise the men. Honolulu television station KHON-2 said police were investigating it as a second-degree robbery.
Stuart Appleby, a fellow Australian player, said he called Allenby's hotel room Saturday morning and that Allenby was trying to reconstruct what happened. Appleby did not want to disclose what he said because "I don't know how straight his brain is."
The strange sequence of events has led many on social media to question Allenby's story
