British Band Robbed at Gunpoint on First Day of U.S. Tour
The English alternative rock band was readying to play in Sacramento, California, when the incident happened.
Lorne Thomson/Redferns
An English alternative rock band was robbed at gunpoint on the first day of its U.S. tour in California, and the incident was captured on video.
Sports Team, which has clinched two top 10 albums in the U.K., was on their way to Sacramento, California, when their tour van was robbed in the city of Vallejo. The band members lost their passports, personal belongings and stage equipment, reported the BBC.
In footage that the band captured and posted on Instagram, a man is seen around 8:45 a.m. brandishing a gun at the tour manager as she walked up to the group’s sprinter van.
“Obviously, if someone pulls a gun, you run for cover,” singer Alex Rice told BBC. “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.”
The band had stopped at a Starbucks for breakfast when they were alerted that a robbery was in progress.
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Drummer Al Greenwood 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.’”
The man can be heard in the video screaming at the tour manager to “get down” as another Sports Team band member filmed the robbery from inside the Starbucks. Staff inside the Starbucks can be heard advising others to get off the street and stay inside.
“It was very discombobulating because they just carried on with their shift,” said Greenwood.
“They started serving drinks straight away,” added Rice.
The Daily Beast contacted the local police department about the incident but did not receive an immediate reply.
According to the group, the tour will proceed as planned.
“They can take our Nintendo Switches but they can never take our ability to play rock songs about motorways,” the band posted on Instagram.
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