Middle Ball Child Left Behind In China After Alleged Shoplifting

The three UCLA freshmen—Jalen Hill, Cody Riley, and LiAngelo Ball—caught stealing from a Louis Vuitton store in Hangzhou last week were not able to accompany their teammates back to the United States Saturday night, reports ESPN. Apparently this is not because they will be spending the remainder of their days locked inside a grim foreign prison:

[The players] were released on bail early Wednesday morning and have been staying at a lakeside hotel in Hangzhou since then while the team had been in Shanghai preparing for Saturday’s game.

A source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation said the players could be in Hangzhou for “a week or two.”

The elder Ball—who, along with youngest Ball child LaMelo, was traveling in China with UCLA—is apparently taking the international legal troubles of his middle son in stride:

As he was leaving the hotel later Wednesday, LaVar said: “I’m going to wait until I get some more intel on what’s going on, and then I can tell you what’s up.”

Asked if he was worried about LiAngelo, LaVar said, “He’ll be fine. He’ll be fine. Everybody making it a big deal. It ain’t that big of a deal.”

Big deal or no, police reportedly have surveillance footage of the three players shoplifting from three different high-end retailers at a shopping area adjacent to the Hyatt Regency in Hangzhou, where the team was staying. UCLA traveled to Shanghai for their game against Georgia Tech without the three freshmen, and the three players are apparently still at the hotel today.