Pretty much just what the title says. This was like 2 or 3 years ago—my boyfriend and I went to see this band we were obsessed with. After the opener, we wandered over to the merch booth and noticed it was completely unattended. We waited for a bit, but nobody showed up. I was a few drinks in and thought it would be hilarious to just stand behind the table and pretend to work there. Mostly just to make my boyfriend laugh.
Thing is, people immediately started coming up to me to buy stuff. I didn’t take any money—just kept saying some nonsense and turned them away—and they all looked super confused. Meanwhile, my boyfriend came up pretending to be a regular customer, and I “sold” him two shirts, which we very much just walked off with.
We honestly meant to pay for them, but the actual merch person never appeared. I think about it once in a blue moon and feel like a trash for a few seconds, but it still kind of makes us laugh.
Comments
Honestly you guys only stole 2 shirts so I wouldn’t say it’s that bad
Chaotic neutral energy at its finest. Lowkey wrong, highkey hilarious… at least you didn’t start charging people 😂
I condone theft in the slight form of taking from corporations that overcharge and under pay their workers. I dont advocate for it, and I dont preach it. Stealing is wrong. However… Sometimes (regularly) I “forget” to pay for a 12 of soda. Or a big pack of something. Because… money aint cheap.
These musicians make a lot of their return from a show from merchandise. Yes the shirt and print probably costs 9$ to make and they are sold at 30-40. This is the profit of their craft they rely on to continue to perform as entertainers. Especially local bands.
They didnt lose out on 18$. They lost product and are negative 60$.
I dont mean to be THAT guy, just giving my perspective.
Dont attack me for being a Debbie downer about a funny story please. I was caught stealing condoms from Walmart at 17. That was the most embarrassing ive ever been in front of my parents lol. My list of things ive stolen in my life are great.. Wish it wasn’t but fuck it you live and learn lol
Don’t steal from musicians unless they are already multimillionaires and won’t feel it. Lots of them are struggling though, the fact the merch stand was unattended could mean they had no one to staff it – which means they are struggling
Some bands don’t always have a merch guy. Sometimes it’s the band members that have to run it and it sounds like they were busy elsewhere
If you feel bad about it and you like the band and want to help them out, you should just buy 2 more t-shirts from them online so they can keep on doing what they’re doing
Who knows how many sales you could have made that night..
You can fix it by going to their Bandcamp page if they have one, buying something, and paying over the minimum price equal to the amount for the merch you stole.
Goddamn Reddit is so annoying sometimes. The girl took two t-shirts, she didn’t murder a toddler for godssake. I’d love to see the perfect life these people sitting on their moral high grounds live.
oh my fuck, these “holier than thou” comments are so annoying. classic reddit.
OP – this is a funny story and what you did was harmless, I wouldn’t fret over it
If this isn’t an adult faking teenage make believe with this sentence alone
“Saying some nonsense and turned them away”
Shit move. Stealing from bands you can walk behind a merch table at is the lowest of low. You don’t deserve to see live music, get a hobby
Bands rely on merch sales when touring. It sounds like the band was either doing their own merch and probably stepped away to get ready to go on or something. Often times, venues also take a cut from merchandise sales.
I’d just buy some merch from them to try and make right.
Bands have a hard enough time making it without people stealing from them. Trash fans for sure.
Is this a stolen confession post? /rawrghost has the exact same story, you just changed the wording.
Just so you know, that’s fucked up.
I’ve been in the indie music scene (punk, hardcore, metal) my whole life, and believe me when I tell you that sucks for the band.
Even with a band that can easily fill 500 cap rooms, they’re coming home with basically no money after tour. They have enough to keep the band going as a business – order more merch to be made, keep gas in the van, if they’re good with money, maybe an emergency fund for the van, and that’s it.
A lot of smaller bands are show-to-show. There were plenty of smaller tours I played where the money from that night was getting us to our show tomorrow. All the way down the tour. Many nights where we could only afford to eat bean and cheese taco bell burritos cause we needed the rest of the money for gas. Many nights sleeping in the van. Living day to day so we could pursue our dream of saying music as long as life would let us.
I say allllll this to say, fuck you. It’s really fucking hard to make it as a small band/musician, and the artists do it at great personal risk. This was actually a fucked up thing,abd you’re remarkably lucky nobody beat your ass for it.
Very shitty
Reminds me of a bar downtown where I live.
There’s a weird upstairs area/balcony that never really gets used, but it looks cool so it’s survived several iterations of bars that inhabited that venue.
One time I just decided to grab the velvet rope at the bottom of the stairs and act like a bouncer.
Suddenly a line formed, people were offering to pay to go upstairs, telling me they knew the owner, wanted to show me ID. It was really interesting.
I let everyone go upstairs, but acted like I was doing them a favor.
The upstairs bartender came down and was like WTF are you doing, are you charging cover? I asked if she got busier. We agreed to shut down my experiment
This is kind of bad because those musicians, if they didn’t have a merch guy, were definitely not rich and could have used the cash, but at the same time, a couple of t-shirts isn’t the end of the world.
Petty judgment: Don’t do it again.
Aha, this is wild! It’s honestly kinda hilarious but also like, low-key feels like stealing, no? I get that it was spontaneous and you didn’t mean harm, but I’m sure the merch person was probably pissed when they came back and saw stuff missing. At least u guys didn’t take money, but still… maybe next time just grab the stuff and pay for it later, lol.
Pretty sure this never happened
Yes. it was certainly swiping, even if it began as a joke. Humorous in the heat of the moment? Possibly. But you swiped merch that wasn’t yours and didn’t pay intention or otherwise. Doesn’t make you a monster, just a bit shady that evening. If it still bugs you, perhaps purchase something from the band now to rectify the situation.
What a trsh thing to do. Merch is often the majority of a touring bands income. You should feel bad.
Artists will never catch a break, I stg
Cool way to support a band you like.
If they are a small band you did some damage. Good karma for you if you pay now – send them $75 or $100.
Bands that run their own merch booth live show to show and you could definitely help with gas money.
My friends ex husband pretended to be security to sneak us into the famous NYC club Studio 54’s Last Dance sold out show in 1996 before it was closed for good a dance club. He got us past security by him pretending to be security. It was such a chaotic night, they were like whatever go in 🤣
Congrats on being a piece of 💩 – I’m sure you’re the first one to scream about supporting small and local artists too
If it really bothers you (and this isn’t some karma-faming ploy), to make amends, go to their bandcamp and pay more than what they have asked for an album sale. Pay the amount you should have originally paid, plus interest.
coming from someone who’s played in touring bands, this sucks so much.
I’ve had the privilege of meeting several bands over the years and almost all of them gave me free merch. 2 shirts isn’t going to break the band. I’m sure they would get a laugh out of it if you could ever tell them the story.
For example, this one time me and my friends went to see Soulfly at Deep Ellum Live in Dallas. We got there super early and were hanging around the venue and saw people going in and out the backdoor completely unchecked. So we just nonchalantly walked through and it just so happened to be while they were doing the sound check. We stood there behind the drummer for about 10-15 mins while they did the check and then everyone started to walk off stage right past us. Max Cavalera himself was the one who stopped and said “hey who are you guys here with?” And we nervously said “uhh, sorry we just walked through the door and saw you guys, we’re here for the show and big fans”. He laughed so hard and said how cool that was and then took us back to the (very tiny) dressing room to meet the rest of the band and tell them what we did. Got some free merch and autographs. I really wish camera phones had been a thing back then. 🤣
If this is a real post, yuck. I stopped two young guys from walking off with a huge pile of shirts at a GNR concert a few years ago. Merch guy rewarded me with a tote bag with two t-shirts, a patch set, and a bandana inside. Granted they are a huge band with $$, but man did i feel great afterwards 😅
Yeah that was a shitty thing to do
Yea, you are a shitty person.
Shitty, unfunny, lame.
Yeah, you and your boyfriend are wack. Broke ass bitch shit. Been touring for 14 years and for the first few years, one of the bands I worked for hardly made money for food, selling maybe $100 in merch a night. Back then, there were countless other bands we toured with in the same predicament. Not only did you steal from a band, it sounds like you stole from one who couldn’t even afford a merch guy.
I would’ve sold the merch and given the band its money and an inventory of what sold. I don’t get why you stole the shirts.
Sometimes we play a show and are paid 60 bucks. Sometimes we make $300.
And sometimes if it is a small show with a touring band, we give all the money to the touring band and all we get are shirt sales.
We have to man our own merch table and its awful. I hate it.
I see you feel bad so im not trying to pile on, but just approach the artist if they arent at the table and ask for a shirt. We will be really friendly and gladly get you one. Then you got a shirt and got to meet the band. Win win.
It also sucks because you turned people away who might not have come back.
You missed an opportunity (potentially) to hang out with your favorite band and maybe even get free merch. Imagine if you would’ve sold a few things, then explained this to the band member who shows up 20 minutes later while you hand them a small wad of cash…
Most bands don’t have a merch person available. It’s usually the members. So when they were packing all their gear up for a show they don’t get paid for, you stole shirts from them. You could always “donate” them back the money. That would be the right thing to do.
Sounds like they are probably struggling to keep one on payroll or struggling to make ends meet.
Your actions are pretty pathetic given all this info.
“Band you’re obsessed with” means you probably have a good understanding of their act and knew way better than to blatantly steal from them, but then again there are those weirdos who obsess over people and still hurt them.
Nice way to dress up the story where you stole from someone.
This is hilarious, I would have been so confused
Not too late to pay for the shirts.
You can make it a full time job
Why did you not pocket the money and sell a few rather than turn away willing customers? I never understood stealing some but not all mentality. Either you are a thief or you are not. There is no honor in stealing less. I would argue you missed an opportunity. Personally I chose not to steal but when I used to drink I stole a lot. One of many reasons I had to stop drinking. I found it curious you had to mention you had a few drinks as context for your actions. No judgement though I did much worse and it is a funny story as a remember when. Hopefully you find an opportunity to make amends or you have already.
🤣 one day I sold cigarettes at ozfest. People were shucking any bill they could find from their pants and would sat “just give me the rest in the pack” then I’d walk back to the booth and buy 4 more packs… by the time it was dark I had my pockets stuffed with nasty bills and I made the booth guy so much money that he stopped selling stuff and talked with his buddys all night long 🤣 they all sat down behind the booth and bullshitted until I came back. Felt like a drug dealer at 14 🤣
Another bullshit story. Judging by the name of the account and age this is likely for OF karma farming.
Thats awesome
https://www.reddit.com/r/confession/s/bDaeXgZu7F
Hey man, let me copy your homework
No, you reposted someone else’s story from 5 years ago because you have nothing better going on in your life.
Normally im all for this by “giving it to the man”. But I suspect this was not a mainstream band which means most, if not all, of their income comes from mech sales. Might wanna buy some shirts from them or see if they have a way to give them $.
Lesson learned I suppose.
What band was it?
Worth it. Shits too expensive and poorly made on top of that so good on you
It’s 2 fucking shirts lmfaooo
Stealing from the band you’re obsessed with. Interesting way to show appreciation. Art should be paid for.
I was at a concert for my favorite band about twenty years ago and got dragged outside by security and accused very loudly of shitting in one of their bathroom sinks. I didn’t.
The security manager swore up and down it was me, said there was video tape, refused to produce it, and banned me. Thing is, I wanted to see the band so badly that I made sure to pee right before the show, didn’t even use the bathroom they accused me of messing up, and only ever went before the show, not fifteen minutes in as was suggested.
So not only did I not get to see my favorite band, but got banned from the venue, publicly humiliated, and it was so traumatizing I only started going to shows again last year. It’s been about twenty years, and I used to go to a show every Friday.
Seems like a missed opportunity to me… You were obsessed with the band right? I’d have just hung out and did the job till someone showed up. There is a chance it could go bad but I’d bet otherwise. Now you’re friends with the band…
I saw James McMurtry, and Betty Soo….and BettySoo ran the merch table, and left it unattended…we were sitting by it, and someone came up and asked to buy a t shirt, and we took the money, and then gave it to Betty Soo, when she returned.
We had never met her before, and I think she was a bit surprised, by I also bet this has happened before.
Slytherin House checkin in
REPOST FROM DIFFERENT OP FIVE YEARS AGO. Get a life. https://www.reddit.com/r/confession/s/943wKPV79I
A suggestion. If you feel bad about it why not buy their music from an indie site like Bandcamp? The money will go directly to them and you pay it back in that way.
Truth is; bands live off that merch, you literally stole from the people whose music you love.
“We honestly meant to pay for them” oh shut up
I see a lot on here that I morally don’t care about because it affects bug businesses or something. But this isn’t great as small bands make most of their revenue on merch. Bigger names don’t matter much but a newer or smaller band will make their food off those t shirts, pashes, and hats
SINNER! You stole from a band that can’t even afford to keep their merch table staffed. And you say you two were obsessed fans, and then you steal from them. You should spend much more time feeling like trash. And that immature rationalization of “Oh we honestly meant to pay for the merch we took, but no one was around at the moment, so oh well, if you really think about it, theft is often the fault of the victim for leaving their shit laying around.” That’s on the band, not your pure heart.
If you like a band, you probably won’t steal straight from their pockets. Unless you’re just a shitty person.
I love coming to this sub. It so often makes me feel better about who I am as a person
It would have been a cash only merch table for the time I was behind it, if you catch my drift
You shouldn’t have done that, but the merch salespeople shouldn’t have left their booth unattended in a crowd of drunk and possibly high fans. That’s crazy.
This belongs in r/ULPT
See the specific type of hyphens used? Dead giveaway that it’s AI generated. OP definitely just took the old post and had chatgpt rewrite it. Can’t believe that people can’t spot this at this point.
So you stole from the band? Loser