An aspiring cell phone thief chose the wrong target Monday evening, when his victim fought back long enough to cause the miscreant's arrest.

Police say the drama played out at 4:39 p.m. Monday, on the 1300 block of Fillmore Street, which is in between Eddy and Ellis Streets.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, a 49-year-old man "was calling a rideshare company" when a 22-year-old man "ran up and grabbed the phone from his hands."

The phone owner chased the thief, and "they got into a physical fight over the phone," police say.

Eventually, the suspect "ran across the street to a business," but that, too, was a wrong turn as it was there "where police took [the suspect] into custody."

The suspect was booked into San Francisco County Jail, police say. The victim, whose phone was taken from the thief by police, sustained minor injuries in the scrum and is expected to recover.