We’ve seen some pretty crazy stories of iPhone theft and sweet retribution. Remember when a cruse line employee stole a passenger’s iPhone and revealed his own identity by taking pictures that were uploaded to Photo Stream for the world to see? Or how about when an 8-year-old used Find My iPhone to locate over 300K worth of stolen goods?

There’s nothing quite like a good ol’ citizens arrest. In Manhattan, a would-be thief was run down and tackled by two New Yorkers before he could make off with a woman’s iPhone.

Brian Hester and Chase Bunn were two normal dudes on a smoke break when they saw a scumbag blindside a woman outside her office on 100 Church Street. The perpetrator, Noah Udell, grabbed the iPhone out of 23-year-old Erika Silva’s hand while she was surfing the web, and the two were seen briefly wrestling for the phone before Udell overpowered Silva and started running.

That’s when Hester and Bunn became more than normal dudes; they became heroes.

The New York Post reports:

Bunn was the first to grab Udell, 26, but hurt his knee in the attempted citizen’s arrest. Hester then knocked the suspect to the ground but got slightly dazed himself in the fall. That’s when a crowd of other outraged bystanders started to gather, and one man stomped his foot onto Udell’s throat. Hester said he actually had to hold off angry onlookers. In the process, Udell jumped up and once again bolted. Hester chased him a second time, catching him on Barclay Street near West Broadway. “I was like, ‘I don’t have all day to be chasing you,’ ” Hester said he told Udell.

The two men caught and detained Udell until the cops arrived, and the scene was captured by bystander on the street (video is flash):

The Wall Street Journal recently profiled smartphone theft in New York City, noting that 40% of all devices stolen are made by Apple (dubbed “iCrime”). Soon all U.S. carriers will have blacklists that will block a smartphone or 3G tablet from getting service when it is reported as stolen.

Source: The New York Post