Arrest in Golfer Robert Allenby’s Mugging Case

The story of professional golfer Robert Allenby’s mugging, which hooked badly when homeless people claimed that he fabricated it, has sliced back in the fairway after Honolulu police acknowledged a suspect in the robbery is in custody.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that a 32-year-old man already jailed at Oahu Community Correctional Facility has been arrested.

Allenby, who has earned $27 million on the professional tour, claimed that he had been drugged, robbed, beaten, thrown into the trunk of a car, and dumped off at a park in Honolulu on the night of January 16, even posting pictures of his bloody forehead and swollen eye on Facebook. He added that he did not remember what happened to him that night between 11 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., saying he visited a wine bar. He asserted that the robbers slipped a drug in his drink.

Allenby’s story was countered by several homeless people; the New York Post reported that Golf Channel interviewed witnesses who claimed Allenby joined “a group of friends,” to visit Club Femme Nu, an adult entertainment club, dropping $3,400, then leaving around midnight. Golf Channel queried several homeless people at the park; one asserted that Allenby stumbled and fell, landing face-first on a lava rock.

One witness, Toa Kaili, said Allenby passed out and it took him ten minutes to awaken. Kaili explained, “He was beyond tipsy. This man was blitzed… He then started saying, ‘Where’s the other guy? You gave him the keys; to get the keys.’ I was like ‘Wooh, this dude is beyond having drinks.’” Kaili said Allenby accused him and his friend Chris Khamis of stealing his phone and wallet.

According to Kaili, he left, then returned two and a half hours to find Allenby, who didn’t recognize him. Kaili said Allenby claimed “punks robbed him.” Khamis added that Allenby shouted that he was a millionaire and brandished his platinum credit card. Khamis told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “There was no crime [when I was present]. It was his stupidity. [Allenby] passed out and hit his head. I was there. Nobody pushed him out of a car.” A third homeless person, Charade Keane agreed that Allenby lied.

Police are investigating fraudulent charges on Allenby’s credit cards.