"We leave for tour on Friday and we are SO SAD," wrote Gully Boys on Instagram yesterday. According to the red-hot Minneapolis rockers, a van containing all their instruments and gear was stolen from the Powderhorn neighborhood overnight on Saturday. The band are asking fans to "PLEASE KEEP YOUR EYE OUT for a 1996 silver ford ECOLINE with the inscription fontana along the side."

The van also contained all the band's merchandise, they explain in a story. They were in the neighborhood on Saturday to play at a Powderhorn Park rally for Minneapolis mayoral candidate Sheila Nezhad. "Let this be a lesson to all musicians," they add. "Never leave your gear in the van. No matter how tired you are. No matter how long. It is never worth losing it all."

Unfortunately, music gear theft from parked vehicles — often with the vehicle itself stolen — is not a rarity. Minnesota musicians including Dessa, Sims, and Dead Man Winter have experienced similar thefts in recent years; Parker Millsap's van and gear were stolen from outside a hotel near the MSP airport in 2016. While the stolen gear is sometimes recovered, often it's not.

When Dessa's gear was stolen during a 2013 tour, she described the frustration of trying to keep equipment safe when it's not something you can easily pick up and carry around with you. "There’s no trip away from the van that’s too brief," she told Andrea Swensson, while noting that "I’m not going to bring all my microphones and my in-ear equipment and set it up on the chair next to me. You know? No one’s going to be like, hey, we’re here with our bass amp to eat at Famous Dave’s."

After a tweet about the van theft was widely shared, Gully Boys wrote, "We love y’all so much, we can’t express enough how supported we feel in moments like this."