British band in California robbed at gunpoint one day into West Coast tour

A British band kicking off its West Coast tour in San Francisco this week hit a bump in the road when a gunman robbed the members’ tour van at a Vallejo gas station.

But as consummate professionals, the group said it will continue its tour.

“Just been robbed at gun point 10 minutes into the US tour,” the band, Sports Team, wrote in an Instagram post. “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.”

The post-punk band is set to release a new album in February and has tour stops in San Diego, Los Angeles and Portland later this month. The band played the first show of its tour in San Francisco on Monday and made the drive to its next gig in Sacramento. But the members stopped first at a Vallejo gas station Starbucks on Tuesday, where the tour gods were not smiling down on them.

One of the masked men pulled out a gun when the band members tried to stop the robbery, according to the band’s post, which included a video of the episode. In the video, taken around 9 a.m., a group of masked individuals pulls items out of the band’s white tour van. Someone screams for the band members to seek refuge inside the Starbucks.

When the band called police to report the robbery they were told to “submit an online report,” according to the band’s post.

Sgt. Rashad Hollis with the Vallejo Police Department confirmed an emergency dispatcher did receive a call from a person about the incident, but that caller could not verify if a gun was brandished or pointed at anyone.

“We don’t want to re-victimize the victim and say that they were in the wrong,” Hollis said. “Based on the available information provided to the dispatcher at the time, and the fact that there was no ongoing danger to the caller, the call was considered a vehicle burglary.”

There were over a dozen people in the band’s entourage, Hollis said, so the person who called might not have had all the information when they spoke to a dispatcher. The department was then asked to respond to an unrelated SWAT situation later that morning, which limited its resources to investigate the robbery, according to Hollis.

The members, who are originally from Cambridge, England, said their “laptops, personal items, passports and other valuables were stolen.”

In a statement, the band members said they took cover when they saw the gun.

“The band called the police, and were shocked to hear they would not attend the scene of the crime. Instead, they were told by police to file a report online, which they have done,” said the band.

“Lost a lot of personal gear, but they didn’t get the instruments so driving on to Sacramento to play tonight,” the band wrote. “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.”

The Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The indie band, which was nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2020, is set to play in Los Angeles on Dec. 11 at El Cid and in Palm Springs on Dec. 15.