Man held up at gunpoint outside Phipps Plaza movie theater

ATLANTA — A man wants everyone to be on alert after someone robbed him at gunpoint as he left a busy movie theater.

The robbery happened Thursday night near the theater at Phipps Plaza.

Artrell Peters said he was walking alone and had no time to react when a man put a gun in his face.

“You don’t know if you’re going to hear a shot or not hear a shot,” said Peters.

He told Channel 2's Matt Johnson that he never thought he would become a target for an armed robber inside the parking garage at Phipps Plaza.

“I thought he was going to ask directions, but he had the gun and I said, 'This is really happening,'” Peters said.

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Peters said he was leaving the theater around 11:30 p.m. and heading to a MARTA station when someone with a gun jumped out of a car that slowly approached him.

“Even if I was armed I wouldn’t have been able to do anything. He had his gun out first, there's nothing you can do,” Peters said.

That’s when he handed over the only thing the robber wanted.

"’Give it up! Give it up!' I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘The backpack, backpack!’ I took that backpack off as soon as I could and gave it to him," Peters said.

Johnson looked up Atlanta police crime statistics which showed the robbery was the second one reported at the mall this year.

Peters said he doesn't feel unsafe at the mall but is sharing his story in case the robber who targeted him strikes again.

“It happened to me once … I don’t know,” Peters said.

Johnson checked with police Friday evening and they told him they do not have any surveillance video to release that may have captured the crime.

Cox Media Group