Rio Olympics Staff Told To Carry Second Phone To Give To Thieves

Crime "is such a problem on the streets of Rio de Janeiro the unofficial advice to foreign employees from colleagues at the Olympic Games organising committee is carry a cheap second phone and keep some money in your pocket to sacrifice without a fight when you’re robbed," according to Simon King of THE AUSTRALIAN. But "despite Rio having an economy that is in complete disarray driving unemployment, inflation and, in turn, desperation," Rio 2016 Dir of Communications Mario Andrada remains confident the host town will be the "safest city in the world" come Aug. 5. Andrada said, "Rio has a tradition of some violence, especially stupid, violent quick robbery, where they take your cell phone and everything. Sometimes people aren’t used to this reality and people react and then tragic things happen. But we also have a tradition to host big events and during the big events some sort of truce takes place because everybody knows that it’s better for Rio" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 12/9).