Jennifer Laughner didn’t know her phone would get snatched right out of her hands as she waited for the Metro.
And the person who snatched her phone didn’t know he’d messed with the wrong woman.
On Wednesday morning, Laughner was scrolling through emails on her iPhone while waiting for a Red Line train at Gallery Place. That’s when a man ran past her, grabbing her phone as he did.
"I couldn't believe it; I still can't believe it," she said.
Instinctively, Laughner chased the person who took her phone. He ran around the escalator -- and so did she. He ran around again -- and so did she.
"He started going around the escalator in circles [for] maybe like two or three minutes," Laughner said.
She was yelling for help -- "as loud as I could," she said -- when a contract worker hanging signs in the station saw the chase and joined in, tackling the thief to the ground and retrieving the phone for Laughner.
Laughner has vowed to keep her phone in her bag from now on.
A similar incident took place last month and was caught on video. During an evening rush hour in April, a thief snatched an iPhone from a rider's hands. He didn't get very far before a group of angry Metro passengers chased after him.
In that case, the man was surrounded, tackled, and later arrested by police.
