With two armed and hooded men flanking him, Center City Soft Pretzel Company employee Seceilion Oliver knew he had to keep his cool and think.
"I'm coming up with ideas in my head fast like 'Seceil, what you going to do? What you going to do?'" Oliver said.
The 35-year-old man explained to Action News what happened during the crime at 8th and Washington in South Philadelphia.
He says the men came in just after midnight demanding cash.
Oliver made a move he was praying would alert someone of the robbery - he opened the cash register and left it open.
While the thieves were ransacking the back office, he spotted in their bag duct tape and zip ties.
"I said, 'God, please, accept me for who I am, forgive me for all my sins, please take care of my family' because I'm thinking this is it," Oliver said.
Minutes later, cameras captured a curious regular, a 3rd district police officer who spotted the open register and called out to Oliver making the bad guys nervous.
"He turned around and put the gun to my waist and the other guy said "shoot him."I looked at him and I said, 'this is not happening,'" Oliver said.
Oliver, a husband and father of 7 children, took a chance and ran out.
Officers took down the robbers police identified as ex-convicts 40-year-old Donte Camp of Philadelphia and 43-year-old Calvin Clark of Bensalem.
Afraid of retaliation, Oliver didn't want to speak on camera at first, but the devoutly Christian man changed his mind saying his faith is in control.
"If everyone gets together and says enough is enough like I'm saying, you'll see the change because right now criminals have the upper hand; it's fear," Oliver said.
