December 19th, 2014
Oh has been suspended indefinitely by the league for the stealing incident.
Toray’s volleyball director Haruhiko Yoshida and Toray’s coach Atsushi Kobayashi have been suspended for the rest of the 2014-2015 V-League season
Toray’s deputy volleyball director Hisanori Yajima and assistant coach Ayumu Shinoda will take over for the rest of the 2014-2015 V-League season.
Volleywood correspondent Jeremy Brahm contributed to this report.
December 12th, 2014
Kongo, you need to be spanked for being such a very bad boy!
You brought shame not just to your name but also to your team and to your family.
He stole $1,178.60 worth of cash and now his reputation is ruined.
SAD.
Volleyball player arrested for cash theft at Tokyo pachinko
Police have arrested a Japan national team volleyball player on suspicion of stealing money from a wallet at a pachinko pinball parlor in Tokyo, police said Friday.
Kongo Oh, 30, a member of Toray Industries Inc.’s men’s volleyball team, admitted to the charges, police said. The team said Friday it will bow out of a national championship meet, which is currently being held in Tokyo.
The police said Oh stole the money from a wallet left at a pachinko machine when its owner in his 20s left his seat at the pachinko parlor in Shinagawa Ward around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
He took ¥140,000 out of around ¥150,000 contained in the wallet before turning the wallet in at the parlor, the police said.
As the man found the money in his wallet had been taken, the parlor reported the matter to police. Oh, who was still at the parlor, admitted to the theft when he was questioned by investigators who went to the scene.
Oh, who was born in China, acquired Japanese nationality in 2011. He was selected as a member of the 2014 men’s national team.
He was at the pachinko parlor in his free time while the volleyball team was staying in Shinagawa Ward.
(image: FIVB)