Members of a touring rock band speak out after they said they were robbed at gunpoint in Vallejo.
Members of the Sports Team rock band, just in from England hours before, stopped to get a coffee at Starbucks in Vallejo on Monday morning. That’s when robbers broke into their sprinter van. A band member and manager went out to stop them.
“At that point, someone shouts ‘they’re holding something!’” said Al Greenwood, Sports Team drummer. “And then, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at Lauren, our tour manager and started waving it at us like to get back. So we then retreated and ducked for cover.”
Band members told NBC Bay Area Tuesday that as bad as the robbery was, things got worse when someone did call Vallejo police and was told to file a report online. It’s not the way the situation they said would’ve been handled in their hometown of London.
“It felt it was really normalized for the whole community, the people in Starbucks, the police who we spoke to. I think that was more shocking and has shaken us more than the incident itself,” Greenwood said.
The criminals got away with laptops, clothing, and Nintendo Switches, but the instruments were locked away and lived to see another day.
NBC Bay Area asked Alex Smith, the band’s lead singer, if this incident changed his image of the USA.
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“I think this is the greatest country on Earth, but it just needs to prove it at so many levels. I understand why guns are a problem here and I understand the frontier spirit that exists in America, but I do think it’s time to make a change,” he said.
NBC Bay Area reached out to the Vallejo Police Department for comment on Tuesday but did not hear back.
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Band members said the experience actually connects them to the Bay Area and hope that comes across at their next show this weekend at The Chapel in San Francisco.
