Marietta store manager reported a shoplifter. An hour later, he was in custody.

At first, it was all routine.

Officers were dispatched about 6 p.m. Sunday and spoke with the manager, 31-year-old Shivamkumar Patel of Smyrna, who said a customer who was currently in the store had previously shoplifted from the location, McPhilamy said in a news release. At Patel’s request, the customer was issued a criminal trespass warning that prohibited him from coming back to the store for five years.

The Acworth man signed the warning and left without incident, McPhilamy said.

That’s when things went sideways.

This time, the report that came in referenced an armed robbery at Ace Liquors. But it wasn’t Patel who made the call. It was the customer.

The 32-year-old told officers he was the victim and had been held at gunpoint inside the store by Patel and another man, 25-year-old Anil Yaganti of Marietta, the release said. He told police it had happened before they had arrived earlier and that the two men took turns searching his vehicle, according to McPhilamy.

He also said he didn’t realize his handgun was missing from his vehicle until he had left.

What followed were intensive interviews with all three men, which brought to light what McPhilamy called “discrepancies in the statements Patel and Yaganti made.”

That led to a search warrant for the video.

“In a surprise twist, the video confirmed (the customer’s) statements,” McPhilamy said.

Police said Patel and Yaganti held the man inside the store for more than 25 minutes before the first 911 call. They were arrested and booked into the Cobb County jail, each charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment and entering auto with intent to commit theft. Patel faces an additional charge of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not naming the customer because he was not charged. Police said they recovered his gun from the property and returned it to him.