'We honestly meant to pay': 2 Music fans steal band tee shirts from unguarded merch table

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 24, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Do not do what this person did: learn from her mistake!

Some people just like to pilfer things for fun. It's a phase that a lot of teens go through: they love the rush of stealing a shirt or some eyeliner here and there, gaining a small stash of stolen goods. If you happen to accidentally take something from a multi-million-dollar corporation, I think you're in the clear. They probably won't even notice. 

Stealing from a band or musician is a whole different matter, though. They will notice, and their wallets will feel the pinch. Again, if you swiped a shirt from a sold-out stadium show, it's certainly not ethical, but it's not diabolical either. Stealing from any small or medium-sized musical group is just mean-spirited. A lot of the time, music is a side gig for these folks. They've probably had to pay for their merch out of pocket and hope to gain the money back through their sales. It's very hard to make decent money as a musician unless you're constantly touring or releasing back-to-back hit songs. 

This person admitted to swiping a few shirts from the merch booth, and I am judging them hard. Many merch tables are staffed by the actual band members themselves. They're relying on the honor system (and hoping to have trustworthy fans) every time they step away from that merch table for a few minutes. You simply don't have to use your free will that way… you can instead buy shirts or pins from them and support the artists you love. 

Up next, read about the reasons why these workers left their toxic bosses and bad coworkers, like one person whose boss "told me to get a real job… so I left." 

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  • 01
    I pretended to be a merch girl at a concert so I could steal t-shirts 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
    via u/charmingPhoenixx
  • 02
    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
    via u/charmingPhoenixx
  • 03
    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.
    via u/charmingPhoenixx
  • 04
    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.
    via u/charmingPhoenixx

    Commenters were not laughing along with this person, and urged them to rectify the mistake. 

  • 05
    GRA 'I pretended to be a merch girl'
    via Brock Wegner on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 06
    DoinSideQuests 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
    via u/DoinSideQuests
  • 07
    paul_the_mayan 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
    via u/paul_the_mayan
  • 08
    jake_burger 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
    via u/jake_burger
  • 09
    Cheezburger Image 10497775104
    via Shamblen Studios For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 10
    CygnusVCtheSec... 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.
    via u/CygnusVCtheSecond
  • 11
    EfficientGeologist... coming from someone who's played in touring bands, this sks so much.
    via u/EfficientGeologist69
  • 12
    GRANARY
    via Negley Stockman on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 13
    PMmeyourSchwifty Just so you know, that's f ed up. I've been in the indie music scene (punk, metal) my whole life, and believe me when I tell you that sks for the band. Even with a band that can easily fill 500 cap rooms, they're coming home with basically no money after
    via u/PMmeyourSchwifty
  • 14
    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
    via u/PMmeyourSchwifty
  • 15
    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.
    via u/PMmeyourSchwifty
  • 16
    I say allllll this to say, f you. It's really to make it as a small hard band/musician, and the artists do it at great personal risk. This was actually a f ed up thing,abd you're remarkably lucky nobody beat your a for it.
    via u/PMmeyourSchwifty

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merch Music merchandise t shirts shirts bands band musicians
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