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 a Starbucks in Vallejo on Monday morning. That’s when robbers broke into their van.
A band member and manager went out to stop them. The incident was caught on video.
“At that point, somebody shouts that ‘they’re holding something!’” said Al Greenwood, Sports Team's 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 like ducked for cover.”
Band members told NBC Bay Area on 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.
“And it just felt like it was really normalized for the whole community there, the people in Starbucks, the police who we spoke to," Greenwood said. "I think that's kind of what is almost more shocking and shaken us more than the incident itself."
The criminals got away with laptops, clothing and Nintendo Switches but the group's instruments were locked away and lived to see another day.
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NBC Bay Area asked Alex Rice, the band’s lead singer, if this incident changed his image of the United States.
“You know, I think this is the greatest country on Earth and I think it just needs to prove it on so many levels," he said. "I understand why guns are a problem here and I kind of understand this frontier spirit that exists in America but I do think it’s gotta be time to make a change."
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"I think it speaks to a broader issue that you see. You only have to walk down the street in San Francisco or Sacramento to see the level of like people struggling. So yeah, I think that’s really what's been driven home to us," Greenwood said.
NBC Bay Area reached out to the Vallejo Police Department for comment on Tuesday but did not hear back.
Band members said the experience has bonded them to the Bay Area and they hope that comes across at their next show this weekend at The Chapel in San Francisco.
