A young thief pushed a GW student to the ground and stole her cell phone Tuesday afternoon, but the item was returned by another student who chased the suspect into the Metro, according to the University Police Department.

The male suspect approached the female student outside the Marvin Center and grabbed the phone out of her hand at about 3 p.m. A witness to the incident, Ryder Haske, who is also The Hatchet’s multimedia editor, chased the thief down H Street and into the Foggy Bottom Metro station, where he recovered the phone.

The thief then boarded a Metro train and fled the scene. UPD officers were not notified until after the incident, UPD Chief Dolores Stafford said.

The suspect was between 14 and 17 years of age, according to a Crime Alert e-mail sent out to the GW community Wednesday morning.