Man charged with using Robert Allenby’s stolen credit cards
Honolulu police have charged a man in connection with the possession and use of credit cards stolen from golfer Robert Allenby in January.
Police said Wednesday that 32-year-old Patrick Owen Harbison is the man seen on surveillance footage in several Waikiki businesses using credit cards Allenby said were stolen on a strange night after he missed the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Allenby has said publicly that the cards had been used to rack up at least $20,000 in fraudulent charges.
Harbison, who was already in custody on an unrelated charge, faces a total of seven counts: three counts of second-degree identity theft, three counts of second-degree attempted theft and one count of unauthorized possession of confidential public information. He has five prior convictions, including on a felony drug charge.
Allenby said he was kidnapped, robbed and beaten after leaving Amuse Wine Bar in Waikiki after traveling there with friends after dinner on Friday night of tournament week. The Aussie said the last thing he remembered was leaving the wine bar shortly before 11 p.m., then being knocked out as he left the bar with people he didn’t previously know or recognize after the fact. Allenby said he cannot remember the next two-and-a-half hours of that night.
However, he then said he was dumped out of a car in a nearby park, several miles from the wine bar, saved from two homeless men kicking him by a homeless woman, Charade Keane. Keane disputed some particulars of Allenby’s story, saying she found him around the corner from the wine bar and never told him he was thrown from a vehicle. She did maintain she helped Allenby from the homeless men with the help of a passing retired military man, getting Allenby into a cab back to his hotel, where he contacted his son via Facebook and police.
The two homeless men in Allenby’s story, Chris Khamis and Toa Kaili, have also spoken, saying they were trying to help Allenby find his belongings after seeing him twice that night, passed out both times. Khamis — who remained after, the men say, Allenby became agitated with their efforts to help — claims Allenby suffered his head injuries after passing out and falling on a lava rock while Khamis was trying to fin a cab. Khamis also alleges Allenby said he had been at a strip club earlier in the night.
Honolulu police, however, distanced themselves from all aspects of Allenby’s story other than losing his credit cards. Honolulu Police Department Lt. John McCarthy said, “There is no kidnapping investigation” and said he was unaware of any “physical altercation,” according to The Australian. However, police are continuing to investigate how Harbison got the credit cards as a separate investigation.
Allenby spoke at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, chiding the media for doubting his story and insisting the police would solve the case. He missed the cut at Phoenix and did not play in last week’s Farmers Insurance Open.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
