Note: I’m not asking for legal advice. Rather, it’s a thing in some countries (like Japan or Indonesia) as I recall watching a video depicting an Australian tourist in Indonesia witnessesing people pursuing the phone snatcher by ganging up on him in which they eventually caught the dude & undercover cops managed to arrest him. Now, the question remains: are people in the US allowed to conduct a citizens arrest in the US?
It’s uncommon because if you get the law wrong you are committing a crime. Very few of us are lawyers.