Honolulu police have charged a man in connection with the use of golfer Robert Allenby's credit cards.
Patrick Owen Harbison, 32, is the man, police say, seen on surveillance footage in several Waikiki businesses using credit cards Allenby said were stolen on a harrowing Friday night after he missed the cut last month 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 has been charged with three counts of second-degree identity theft, three counts of second-degree attempted theft and one count of unauthorized possession of confidential public information. Hehas been in custody for weeks on an unrelated charge and 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 following a Friday dinner. The 43-year-old Aussie said he was knocked out as he left the bar with people he didn't previously know or recognize after the fact. Allenby 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 another homeless woman. That woman, Charade Keane, disputed elements 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.
The two homeless men, Chris Khamis and Toa Kaili, have also spoken, saying they were trying to help Allenby find his belongings and that he suffered his head injuries after passing out and falling on a lava rock. 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 in Phoenix and did not play in last week's Farmers Insurance Open.
