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By Dave Pehling
/ CBS San Francisco
A touring British indie-rock band claimed they lost personal gear when armed robbers targeted their van while they were getting coffee at a Starbucks in Vallejo, California, Tuesday morning on the first day of their U.S. tour.
The band posted about the incident on their Instagram account. Cellphone video showed an individual taking items out of a van as the person taking the video shouts for one of the band’s party to get down before yelling, “Ring the police! Ring the police!”
The video appeared to be of the Starbucks and gas station located at 199 Lincoln Rd. West in Vallejo.
“Just been robbed at gun point 10 minutes into the US tour,” the text accompanying the video read. “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.”
In the video, one of the individuals robbing the van can be seen brandishing a firearm, reportedly at the tour manager. Two members of the band’s touring contingent are then seen running back into the Starbucks as people in the coffee shop can be heard instructing people to stay inside. In addition to expletives, the victims are heard mentioning items that they saw being taken including bags and a laptop.
A post shared by Sports Team (@sportsteam)
According to a story posted by the BBC, the band — who have placed two albums in the UK top 10 — “lost their passports, stage equipment and personal belongings in the incident,” which happened at around 8:45 a.m.
The band had been scheduled to start their U.S. tour in San Francisco at the Kilowatt on Monday night, but a cancelled flight out of the United Kingdom led to that show being rescheduled at the Chapel for this Saturday evening. The delay meant that Sport Team would actually kick off their tour with an all-ages show Tuesday night at the Goldfield Trading Post in Sacramento. The band was on their way to Sacramento when the robbery happened.
“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,” the band said in their Instagram post.
CBS News Bay Area reached out to the Vallejo Police Department regarding the incident, but has not yet heard back.
While the post attempted some levity, the band seemed shocked and shaken at what happened to them.
“In all seriousness pretty shocking how resigned everyone seemed to be to it. ‘It happens,'” the post said in closing. “9am at some petrol station Starbucks. Wild.”
Dave Pehling is website managing editor for CBS Bay Area. He started his journalism career doing freelance writing about music in the late 1990s, eventually working as a web writer, editor and producer for KTVU.com in 2003. He began his role with CBS Bay Area in 2015.
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