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Staring down the barrel of a semi-automatic rifle wasn't enough to spook a cigarette-puffing St. Louis man into giving up his valuables early Wednesday morning when an armed robber came into a local bar demanding money.
Bartender Dustin Krueger was serving six customers around 12.30am Wednesday at Behrmann's Tavern on Maramec Street near S. Compton Avenue on the city's south side when the unidentified gunman stormed in wielding a huge, military-style gun.
Soundless surveillance video of the incident shows most of the bar patrons quickly raising their hands and sprawling on the floor as the thief made his way through the room.
But one anonymous bar customer wasn't having it.
While everyone else was squatting and cowering on the floor, the defiant and unfazed patron took a swig from a soft drink can before pulling out his cellphone and staring at the screen.
When the gunman approached the man and tried snatching the cellphone from him while sticking the barrel of the rifle in the man's side, the customer simply refused to let go of his device, snatching it back before laying it face down on the bar counter.
'He just was very adamant about it like, "I'm not playing your game," Krueger told KMOV after the incident.
The attacker stood there briefly in disbelief, seemingly unsure of what to do. He eventually moved on and walked behind the bar while the stubborn customer says something to him before placing a cigarette in his mouth and lighting it.
The gunman is seen pulling items off the shelves along the back wall of the bar while the customer puffs away on his cancer stick.
It seems there's no money to be found behind the bar, so the robber walks back around and sticks the barrel of his gun in the back of another customer who was crouching in fear next to the stubborn cigarette smoker.
This victim quickly pulls out his wallet and opens it to remove a few bills that he throws on the counter. The gunman snatches them and puts them in his pocket before walking back up through the corridor and demanding the same from another person laying on the ground.
Eventually he confronts Krueger, who was laying next to a table, telling the bartender to open the cash register, which he does before laying face down on the floor behind the bar.