We commando past customers (who were oblivious) and go into the hall where the door to the manager's office was.  It is locked and has a peephole.  Paul puts his face right in front of the peephole, knocks, and says "open up, it's Paul."

The manager opens the door, sees that it's not just Paul and one of the people he isn't expecting is wearing a ski mask.  He tries to slam the door shut.  My concern is that now I'm going to be stranded outside the manager's office with a stressed out gun weilding felon.  I kick the door open, knocking the manager on his ass.

Where Paul, Greg, and I were totally stoic and calm during the ordeal, the manager wasn't.  He starts to blubber like a little girl.  Obediently, we three get face down and don't fucking look at him while he tries to get the manager to fill his bags full of cash.  There was apparently over $20,000 in cash up there.  It took a while to get in the bags.  I remember robber yelling "Put the money in the bag!  Put the money in the bag!  Put the money in the bag!"  The crying manager complains that it won't all fit.  The robber has a great comeback, "I'll betcha if I shoot your ass, Paul will get it all in the bag."

While this is going on, I'm studying the carpet.  Then there's a knock on the door.  Movies are ending and there's no projectionist to turn off the projectors.  There's a big white screen in a bunch of theaters.  There's a 16 year old usher looking for Paul.  "Paul, are you in there."  Now I wonder if I can hear him asking for Paul, can he not hear the robber screaming at the manager to put the money in the bag?

The robber vaults over me, pulls the door open, jerks this poor teenager off of his feet, and slings him to the ground.  "Put your face down.  Don't you fucking look at me!"  He then grabs his giant bag of cash, runs out past customers going to the restroom, runs down the stairs past the concession stand, yelling "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" and brandishing his gun the whole time.  He also ripped phones out of the wall on the way.  He apparently ran into a theater that was still showing a film, out the emergency exit, and into a waiting car.  Escaping.

The manager calls the cops on a phone the robber missed, mopping tears off of his face, and sniffling his nose.

The police were awesome.  I have no idea how they got there so fast.  They must have been waiting in the parking lot or watching a movie.  They took our statements, took our names, gave us business cards, and said they'd be in touch.

I got a call the next day and was told that they'd like me to take a polygraph.  I kicked the door open and the robber was calling us by name.  I say I'd like to talk to a lawyer about it first.  Paul calls me up and says he has to take one as it's part of his employment contract (for movie piracy).  He tells me it'll be helpful if I take one too.  Seeing as I have nothing to hide, I agree.

90% of the answers I gave during the polygraph were "none of your business."  They were asking me if I'd ever stolen anything, wanting only a yes or no response.  I'm not going to say that I stole an ice cream in third grade and felt very bad about it afterwards and tried to return it.  Fuck that.  I tell them they can ask me anything they want, but if it doesn't pertain to the robbery I'll say "none of their business."

They never caught the guy.  Neither Paul nor I had any contact with the police about the incident after the polygraphs.