Stephen Hughes bravely fought off a machete-wielding robber at his bottle shop at the Kippax Fair Shopping Centre in Holt on Monday afternoon.
The CCTV footage of the incident, released by police, is shocking, and shows a young man pointing the knife directly at Mr Hughes' face.
But the 57-year-old independent retailer remains unshaken.
"This is my livelihood and I need to protect it. I'm just glad it was me and not my staff," Mr Hughes said.
It was a regular Monday afternoon when Mr Hughes noticed a young girl in a pink hoodie holding the shop's front door open.
"I knew it was a snatch-and-grab. They grab and they run," said the owner, who moved quickly to intercept a young man clad in a black top and grey shorts.
The male suspect had entered the store while the girl held the door open, allegedly planning a quick escape with stolen alcohol.
However, Mr Hughes managed to force the man out of the shop.
Enraged, the suspect began violently kicking the glass front door while the owner made a futile attempt to lock it from the inside.
"He kicked all the glass in," Mr Hughes recalled.
"I came around the counter, got my flashlight, and tried to get my phone to call the police, but it was taking a bit of time to get through."
For a few brief seconds, Mr Hughes thought the ordeal was over. The man had grabbed a 10-pack of beer, and the pair had run away from the shop.
But seconds later, the man charged back inside brandishing a large machete, violently smashing stock on the shelves.
"He was cussing at me, and you know, I was cussing back. He threatened to kill me. He was like, 'I'll kill you, give me the bottles,'" Mr Hughes said.
The shop owner daringly faced down the armed robber with nothing but a flashlight.
"He could have killed me," Mr Hughes said, recalling the dramatic, tense standoff at the counter.
Counting himself among the "daring few", Mr Hughes said his refusal to back down saved him.
"He wasn't game enough to try and come around the counter," he said.
"So he just grabbed some more 10-packs and ran off."
The Mr Hughes confirmed the weapon was a "proper machete" that the man had hidden down his trousers and only brandished after the initial theft attempt failed.
The entire robbery was captured on the shop's CCTV. ACT Policing released a portion of the footage on Wednesday, urging the public to help identify the two suspects. A police investigation is underway to locate the young man and the girl.
Well-wishing locals visited the store on Friday to offer words of comfort after the robbery made the news.
While Mr Hughes remains unfazed by the incident, he expressed deep disappointment with the response from local elected officials.
"We have a lot of politicians here looking for support otherwise, but not a single one has reached out after this," he said.
With over $2000 worth of damage to his storefront to be repaired repaired, Mr Hughes is now calling for tougher penalties for knife-related crime.
