An armed robber threatened a female staffer with a weapon at a Queensland pub on Monday night - but a witness says the most panicked person in the room was the thief himself.
The man, who is still on the run after successfully escaping a police dog squad, can be seen threatening the young woman wearing the mask of Joker from Batman thanks to CCTV footage of the incident.
He is then filmed telling her to fill a bag with money from the till, before running through the premises with his bag and out the door.
However, while undoubtedly a scary experience for patrons and staff, a witness told a local paper that he believed the robber to be a novice based on his timid behaviour while carrying out the crime.
"It looked like he was sh*tting himself more than what anybody else was - like it was the first time he'd done an armed robbery," he explained in an interview with The Queensland Times.
"He wasn't talking very loudly because I don't think he wanted to draw any attention to himself. There were people in the pokie room who didn't even realise there had been a robbery."
However he said the danger was very real - especially as the offender was brandishing both a knife and a gun, according to reports.
"She [the staff member] noticed a gun sticking out of his backpack, and that's when he came in and pointed it at her neck," he said.
"It looked like a slug gun. It had a fairly skinny barrel, but when he pointed it at her neck we thought there is no point in trying to be heroes here."
The witness says the man was clearly not a bad egg however, saying there was "no point I was worried he was going to shoot anyone", and claiming that the thief had told them to "have a good night" as he was exiting.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Newshub.
