Gettin' Robbed Ain't Cool...

in recent years there has been an epidemic of bands getting their trailers and vans broken into while they are on tour and we definitely spent our first night in the condo nervously trying to sleep while our equipment truck sat outside on the street

little did we know that just over a week later, as we pulled up to the very same condo at approx. 1:30am, three dudes wearing hoodies and ski-masks would rush the van holding guns, demanding our money

in a matter of moments they got away with Mike and Eric E's wallets, all four of our cell phones, our GPS unit, 2 iPods, Eric H.'s bag of books/etc., Stephen's two very nice cameras, and the $1.38 in change from Mike's pocket

Steve was smart enough to empty his pockets onto his front seat while they rushed the van, although as he tossed his wallet it went through the van and fell out the other side - due to the nervousness of the KIDS who were robbing us, none of them seemed to notice this and we were lucky to be able to keep the wallet in the end

talked about f-ed up

we hurriedly went into the house and fumbled with the Vonage phone to get a hold of the cops

as an aside: as the hoodlums ran down the street, a cop car drove past on the cross street which we later found out was actually driving around looking for these same three guys who had robbed somebody else a few blocks over

within 10 minutes of the incident 3 cop cars, a detective in an unmarked car and the crime scene investigator were on the scene

while the CSI dude took pictures of the remnants of Stephen's camera bag which they had discarded along the sidewalk, all four cops decided to take our information down individually and redundantly, all the while firing off questions like; "why couldn't you just record in St. Louis?" and "what kind of music do you play?"

we definitely were reaping the benefits of the graveyard shift

a very sleepless night later, we have decided to abandon the condo, in which we stuck out like a sore thumb anyway being the big group of kids with the Mom Van who kept really weird hours, and are currently at the studio trying to keep on keepin on and work out where we are going to stay while we get things finished

Steve was able to get a new phone this morning, although it did take us three T-Mobile locations in order to find one that would honor his contractual discount, which was an incredibly trying experience without our trusted Tom Tom GPS - he is also now the designated Sugar Daddy for the rest of the trip since Eric and Mike had to cancel almost 10 cards between them and he is the only one who's wallet survived the robbery

too bad we didn't spray paint "GAH" over all of our shit, then it'd be easier to spot it on Craigslist

crap!

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Gettin' Robbed Secret Tip! #1

if you EVER get your phone stolen, call the phone company up and FIRST ask to purchase the $6 insurance

one you have done this, then call back and report your phone stolen - you will then get a phone for free

if you DON'T, the person on the other end of the line will tell you how you now have to purchase a replacement at LIST price - not FREE or even at the DISCOUNTED rate that you pay when you sign a new contract

Mike is learning this one the very hard way!...

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Gettin' Robbed Secret Tip! #2

it might be a good idea to spread your credit cards out amongst your luggage when traveling - getting stuck without an ID or any form of currency, plastic or otherwise, really blows

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all of this being said - we are extremely lucky to have made it through this alive, unhurt, and with only a minor amount of things taken from us - it really puts things into perspective as far as the importance of material possessions goes and we are glad that at least it was only the four of us who had to go through this and not the whole band

we will DEFINITELY be keeping this blog up, although you will not being seeing anymore of the fancy pictures that we have had so much fun taking/posting, so please keep tuning in for more updates

now let's get on with making a record...