Matthew Diebel

USATODAY

You know those little pre-movie segments where they ask you to turn off or silence your cellphone and not to talk or text?

Well this guy REALLY takes them seriously.

A Texas man is suing his date for texting while they were watching a 3D showing of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 at an Austin theater.

According to local media, Brandon Vezmar, 37, is asking for $17.31, which was the price of his ticket.

“This is, like, one of my biggest pet peeves,” he told Austin’s American-Statesman.

“It was kind of a first date from hell,” he told the paper, saying that about 15 minutes after the movie began, his date – who he met on dating app Bumble – started texting.

In his lawsuit, which was filed at a Travis County small claims court, Vezmar said the woman “activated her phone at least 10-20 times in 15 minutes to read and send text messages.”

Vezmar told the Statesman she refused to stop when requested and that he suggested she should go outside if she wanted to continue. She left the theater and never came back, he said, leaving him stranded because they had driven in her car.

"I said, 'Listen, your texting is driving me a little nuts' and she said 'I can't not text my friend,’" he told local TV station KVUE. “I said 'maybe you can take it outside to the lobby, I've seen people get kicked out movies for this.'"

“Oh my god, this is crazy,” the woman, a 35-year-old who requested that her name not be used, told the paper.

Later, the woman, who lives in suburban Round Rock, issued a statement to KVUE:

“I did have a very brief date with Brandon that I chose to end prematurely. His behavior made me extremely uncomfortable, and I felt I needed to remove myself from the situation for my own safety. He has escalated the situation far past what any mentally healthy person would. I feel sorry that I hurt his feelings badly enough that he felt he needed to commit so much time and effort into seeking revenge. I hope one day he can move past this and find peace in his life.”

The woman told the Statesman that she only texted on her phone two or three times.

“I had my phone low and I wasn’t bothering anybody,” she said. She was texting a friend who was having a fight with her boyfriend, she said. “It wasn’t, like, constant texting.”

The woman told the paper that Vezmar had called her to ask her to pay him back for the movie ticket but she refused because “he took me out on a date.” Meanwhile, she said, she planned to file a protective order against Vezmar for contacting her little sister to get the money.

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According to the lawsuit, the paper reported, the texting was a “direct violation” of the theater’s policy and that his date “adversely” affected Vezmar’s viewing experience and that of other patrons.

“While damages sought are modest, the principle is important as defendant’s behavior is a threat to civilized society,” the petition said.

“I’m not a bad woman,” the woman told the Statesman. “I just went out on a date.”

Vezmar told KVUE that he is “fully aware of the weirdness of this situation."