UK band Sports Team robbed at gunpoint while getting coffee in California on first day of US tour: ‘Get down!’

Band comprised of Alex Rice, Rob Knaggs, Henry Young, Oli Dewdney, Al Greenwood, and Ben Mack just arrived California ahead of their first show in Sacramento on Tuesday

After stopping at a Starbucks in Vallejo at 9 a.m., the band’s van was ransacked by a group of armed men

The band said the thieves stole their laptops, in-ear monitors, cameras, and other personal items including passports

The group is continuing with their store since their instruments were not damaged

“Just been robbed at gun point 10 minutes into the US tour,” the London-based rockers wrote in an Instagram post Tuesday. The band touched down in California ahead of their first gig in Sacramento

British rock band Sports Team on a swing of America’s west coast was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight on Monday.
The band consisting of frontman Alex Rice, guitarists Rob Knaggs and Henry Young, bassist Oli Dewdney, drummer Al Greenwood, and keyboardist Ben Mack, touched down in California ahead of their first gig in Sacramento on Tuesday.
They had stopped for coffee at a Starbucks in Vallejo, California on the first day of their US tour. Around 9 am on Monday the band was about an hour away from their show venue when they made a rest stop and their tour van was attacked by a group of armed men.

‘Just been robbed at gun point 10 minutes into the US tour,’ the London-based rockers wrote in an Instagram post Tuesday.
The band’s tour manager ceased his attempt to confront the intruders when one of the thieves pulled ‘out a gun,’ according to footage of the ordeal that was filmed from inside the gas station mart.

Sports Team consists of frontman Alex Rice, guitarists Rob Knaggs and Henry Young, bassist Oli Dewdney, drummer Al Greenwood, and keyboardist Ben Mack said the thieves stole their laptops, in-ear monitors, cameras, and other personal items

The band posted photos of damage wrecked on their tour bus by the armed vandals who stole laptops, in-ear monitors, cameras and other personal items

‘Man runs in saying some guys are smashing into a van,’ they continued, alongside video footage of the robbery.
‘Ran out to try to stop it and find masked guys ransacking the van.’
According to the post, local police advised band to ‘submit a police report online,’ as they dealt with material loss and a smashed passenger window. The thieves reportedly stole their laptops, in-ear monitors, cameras, and other personal items.
Alex Rice told Sky News their instruments were safe in the fortified rear of the van, the band and was able to perform at the Goldfield Trading Post in Sacramento Tuesday night.
‘They can take our Nintendo Switches but they can never take our ability to play rock songs about motorways,” they quipped.
‘In all seriousness pretty shocking how resigned everyone seemed to be to it. ‘It happens,’, the band’s frontman said
‘The most immediate concern for us is passports, to be honest.
‘Three of us had our passports taken,’ Rice revealed.

The footage shows the robbers heading for the van parked outside at a Starbucks coffee shop at a gas station in Vallejo, California on Monday morning

Footage recorded from inside the gas station mart in Vallejo, California, where the band had made a rest stop at a Starbucks on Monday morning, shows people scrambling for safety when armed men ransacked their tour van by a group of armed men

Recounting the incident hours later, the band’s drummer said everyone ‘ran out, shouting.’
‘Somebody opened the door and was like, does anybody have a white Sprinter van? Because you’re being robbed right now,’ Greenwood told BBC News.
‘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 realize. In the video, you can hear me screaming at her to get down.’

Despite the setback Sports Team was able to perform at the Goldfield Trading Post in Sacramento Tuesday night, as their instruments were not damaged

Known for their songs ‘M5,’ ‘The Drop,’ and ‘Here’s the Thing,’ Sports Band is touring US, promoting their forthcoming third album, Boys These Days, and will continue their US tour despite the incident.
‘We’re really lucky in that we’re able to do that,’ Rice said.
‘We’ve got a lot of friends in San Francisco. People have been incredibly supportive.
‘It’s a terrible thing to have happened but we’re lucky not to have had our actual instruments taken – which has happened to us in the past.’