NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A Texas tourist who visited Bourbon Street in October has told a Houston television station that he was drugged and robbed of $16,000 in cryptocurrency by two women who stole his phone and accessed his account through his apps.
Robert “Billy” Ewell told reporter Isiah Carey of Houston’s Fox 26 he was coming forward to warn others of how easily the accounts’ two-step security verification could be defeated when someone has their phone taken while incapacitated.
Ewell did not say where in the French Quarter he was when he believes someone slipped the central nervous system depressant Gamma Hydroxybutyrate – commonly known as the “date rape drug” — into his drink.
Ewell said he remembers being offered a ride by two women who claimed they “drove for Uber.” But he said it took them 25 minutes to drop him at a hotel 1.2 miles away and that they accessed his phone during the time.
“I went into a blur,” Ewell told Carey. “I believe I was given GHB. … I started losing bodily functions. I could barely walk. It was bad.”
Ewell said New Orleans police are investigating his robbery complaint, but that he has not heard of any arrests being made.
Click here to see the Fox 26 video report.
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