A cafe worker in the Mission District is being hailed as a hero for jumping out from behind the counter to pummel a would-be backpack thief Friday morning and hold him until police arrived.

The incident happened at Carlin's Cafe at Valencia and 14th streets around 6:45 am on Friday, and as Mission Local reports, it was cafe worker Nick Grant who sprang into action as soon as the masked assailant entered the cafe and grabbed a customer's backpack and sprayed bear mace in the customer's direction.

In surveillance video, you can see Grant push a service cart full of pastry boxes into the suspect, and then grab him and begin pummeling him with punches. The suspect also sprayed bear mace into Grant's face, temporarily blinding him, and he says he's still having breathing problems from it.

A neighbor walking by, Jim Carroll, who had seen the masked assailant enter the cafe and then the ensuing fight, also sprang into action and ran into the cafe.

As Carroll tells KPIX, "I was on the phone with 911 and I tried to assess the situation and figure out which one was the robber. I figured out which one it was and put my arm around his neck."

Both Caroll and Grant held the assailant down until police arrived and took him into custody. Carroll also got bear-sprayed.

Grant, who says he was raised by Marines, tells Mission Local, "Luckily I had the background and training to be that right guy at the right time."

Cafe owner Matt Carlin, whose grandfather originally ran this cafe, tells Mission Local that Grant insisted on coming back into work for his Saturday morning shift, adding, "We need more people like him."

Apparently the customer whose backpack was saved from being robbed was back in the cafe early Saturday, and Grant says they're now on a first-name basis. As he tells Mission Local, "Before yesterday I just knew him as ‘ham egg and bagel guy.'"

According to the SFPD, the suspect was briefly hospitalized for injuries unrelated to the incident, and he was booked on multiple charges.