British band Sports Team have revealed they were robbed at gunpoint in California on Tuesday.
The indie rock band, consisting of vocalist Alex Rice, guitarist and vocalist Rob Knaggs, guitarist Henry Young, bassist Oli Dewdney, drummer Al Greenwood and keyboardist Ben Mack, claimed they were getting coffee at Starbucks when they were alerted that their tour van was being robbed.
It was on the morning of the first day of the US leg of their tour, and they’d been driving to Sacramento to perform.
They claimed they ‘lost a lot of personal gear’ but were still able to perform as their music equipment and instruments were left.
A statement on social media read: ‘Just been robbed at gunpoint 10 minutes into the US tour.
‘Stopped for coffee. Man runs in saying some guys are smashing into a van.
‘Ran out to try to stop it and find masked guys ransacking the van. Start yelling and they pull out a gun.
‘Police response was ‘submit an online report.’
‘Lost a lot of personal gear, but they didn’t get the instruments so driving on to Sacramento to play tonight.
‘They can take our Nintendo Switches but they can never take our ability to play rock songs about motorways.
‘In all seriousness pretty shocking how resigned everyone seemed to be to it.
‘”It happens.” 9am at some petrol station Starbucks. Wild.’
They also shared a video of what appeared to show people ransacking the van, and the band members inside the Starbucks, yelling to ‘stay inside’ and ‘get down’.
Singer Alex later told the BBC: ‘Obviously, if someone pulls a gun, you run for cover, but the thing that struck me about it was the resignation.
‘The people around us weren’t very panicked at all. It seemed like a very everyday occurrence.’
Drummer Al added: ‘Somebody opened the door and was like, does anybody have a white Sprinter van? Because you’re being robbed right now.
‘So we all ran out, shouting. Lauren, our tour manager, was slightly ahead of me, and somebody else ran past us in the opposite direction, and said, “Careful, he’s holding something.”
‘I really thought I was about to watch someone get shot, because it took a while for our tour manager to realise.’
‘It was very discombobulating because they just carried on with their shift,’ she added.
The band said the robbers targeted electronics, and they lost all their passports, documents and suitcases containing their clothes.
‘We’re going to be wearing the same things for the next two weeks,’ she said, and, after her journal was taken, added: ‘I know it sounds ridiculous, but that’s almost the worst part.’
The group have scored two top ten albums in the UK and were promoting their forthcoming third album, Boys These Days.
They plan to continue playing and will return to the Bay Area on Saturday night.
Metro has approached the LAPD for comment.
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