Well, here’s a warm American welcome that Sports Team will never forget. Just 10 minutes into their U.S. tour, the British indie-rockers stopped for a Starbucks run in Vallejo, California, only to have their van ransacked by armed robbers. Guess caffeine wasn’t the only thing brewing that morning.
In a wild turn of events, the band posted a raw video to Instagram showing masked thieves helping themselves to passports, stage gear, and personal belongings—all while brandishing a gun. As chaos unfolded outside the Starbucks-slash-gas-station hybrid, the band’s tour manager had a firearm pointed at him, and onlookers inside the café shouted, “Stay inside!” A rock-n-roll tour kickoff this was not.
According to their Instagram post, the band ran out to confront the thieves only to realize, “Yeah, maybe not the best idea when someone’s got a gun.” The masked robbers made off with bags and a laptop, leaving Sports Team shocked but, somehow, still standing.
Here’s the kicker: Despite losing crucial gear and their passports, the band decided to keep the show on the road—literally. “Police response was ‘submit an online report,’” they wrote, clearly unimpressed. But instead of calling it a day, they packed up what they had left and headed to Sacramento for their scheduled gig that night. Talk about rock-n-roll resilience.
The band, known for chart-topping albums back home in the UK, was supposed to kick off their U.S. tour at the Kilowatt in San Francisco. A canceled flight already forced that gig to be rescheduled, so their Tuesday night all-ages show at Sacramento’s Goldfield Trading Post became the impromptu tour opener.
“In all seriousness, it’s pretty shocking how resigned everyone seemed to be to it,” the band reflected in their post, adding, “It happens.” Yeah, sure, just your typical 9 a.m. robbery at a gas station Starbucks. Wild, indeed.
The Vallejo Police Department has yet to comment, and while the band managed to hold onto their instruments (a small miracle in itself), they’re heading into the rest of their tour minus some pretty essential items. Here’s hoping the rest of the tour is less Vallejo and more “rock-n-roll dream.”
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