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*UCLA freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, who have been detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting, are being allowed to return to the United States on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The trio was spotted checking into a Los Angeles-bound Delta flight at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, airline staff told the outlet.
Their return came hours after Donald Trump said he was hopeful that they would be allowed to return home after he had a long conversation with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
“They’re working on it right now,” Trump told reporters in the Philippines as he prepared to return to Washington after a nearly two-week visit to Asia that included an earlier stop in Beijing. “He’s been terrific,” Trump said, in an apparent reference to Xi.
The players were questioned last week about allegedly stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store next to the team’s hotel in Hangzhou, where the Bruins had been staying before leaving for Shanghai to face Georgia Tech on Saturday. They were released on bail early Wednesday morning and have been staying at a lakeside hotel in Hangzhou since then.
An anonymous U.S. official told The Washington Post that charges against the three players have been reduced.
A source told ESPN’s Arash Markazi that there is surveillance footage of the players shoplifting from three stores inside a high-end shopping center, which houses Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Salvatore Ferragamo stores.
UCLA returned to the United States on Saturday without the three freshmen, sources told Markazi. Bruins coach Steve Alford declined to discuss the matter after the team’s win over the Yellow Jackets.
