plaza and civic center knows duane kemp, working for urban alchemy, a nonprofit offering safety and service. >> practitioner, means i'm practicing being a good citizen. >> reporter: a hero, friday night catching a suspected thief. >> i heard a woman screaming, running after a guy. stopped that guy, "he took my phone." >> reporter: kemp confronted the suspect. >> i told him, give her back her phone. he says, what? give her back her phone. he reached in his pocket, handed back her phone. >> duane, you're the hero. >> reporter: the man got a8 but the woman who said she got the phone as a gift was overcome with gratitude. >> thank you, thank you. >> duane does a great thing every day. >> reporter: duane's boss says duane is an ex-con turning his life around thanks to alchemy, who puts former offenders to work making parts of the city safer. while alchemy tries turning metal into gold this organization does more. >> instead of turning to gold, we're trying to make our spaces better. >> reporter: kemp modest about his role here, especially how he helped stop that suspected thief. >> a 16, 17 kid

. >>> duane kemp is more of a city ambassador helping to keep areas safe. recently, he had no choice but to confront a suspected thief. >> this woman is thanking duane camp for stepping in and getting her new iphone 11 back from a suspected thief. >> how are you doing? >> that's my man there. >> most everybody knows kemp. he's a practitioner working for a city contracted nonprofit offering safety and service to the community. >> to me what practitioner means is i'm practicing being a good citizen. >> he helped catch a suspected thief. >> i heard a woman screaming. stopped the guy and he took my phone. >> he says he confronted the suspect running towards him. >> i just told her give me back the phone. he said what? i said give her back her phone. he handed her back her phone. >> the man got away, but minutes later the woman who said she just got the phone as a gift was overcome with gratitude. >> i had no idea. thank you. >> truth be told, duane does a great thing every day. >> duane's boss says the back story is almost as amazing. he he's an ex-con who is tu

. >>> duane kemp is m