Thief Makes Off With Unreleased Beyoncé Tracks and Set Lists, Police Say

New York Times

15 hours ago

Two men who identified themselves as a choreographer and a dancer for Beyoncé told the police in Atlanta that hard drives containing unreleased music, concert set lists and footage plans for shows were stolen from their rental S.U.V. last week during a stop on the singer's Cowboy Carter tour, the authorities said.
The men, Christopher Grant and Diandre Blue, told officers that they parked their rented 2024 Jeep Wagoneer for about an hour in a parking garage at the Krog Street Market on July 8, according to a police report.
Someone broke the vehicle's rear window while it was unattended and made off with two suitcases that the men said had their belongings in them, the police said.
'Mr. Grant also advised that he was carrying some personal, sensitive information for the musician Beyoncé,' according to the police report, which the Atlanta Police Department posted on its website on Monday.
According to the report, the stolen items included a set of hard drives, which had some unreleased music on them; set lists for past and future concerts; and footage plans for one of the singer's upcoming shows. The hard drives also contained watermarked music, a digital identifier used by recording artists for copyright purposes and to prevent piracy. A 13-inch MacBook Air was also reported stolen.
It was not immediately clear whether the hard drives had been stored inside the two suitcases. A value of $1, which appeared to be a place holder, was assigned in the police report to each of the stolen hard drives.
Two officers dusted the vehicle for fingerprints, which yielded two very light prints, according to investigators, who said that security cameras had recorded the break-in.
A pair of AirPods Max headphones, which were stolen and can be tracked via GPS, led officers to a person described in the report as suspicious.
'At this time, the suspect remains outstanding, and their identity is not yet available for release,' Officer John Predmore, an Atlanta police spokesman, said in an email.
The break-in was reported on Monday by the Atlanta television station WSB. The area where it happened is part of the Krog district, a mixed-use collection of landmark properties and a food hall.
A representative for Beyoncé did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Efforts to reach Mr. Grant and Mr. Blue were not immediately successful.
On Monday night, Beyoncé was scheduled to conclude the Atlanta leg of her Cowboy Carter tour at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, her fourth concert in five nights in the city.