Police are praising a Kane'ohe woman who witnessed an alleged carjacking in Kane'ohe, followed the suspect in her car and directed officers via cell phone until they made the arrest in Nu'uanu.

Theresa Harden, a 35-year-old real estate broker, said she doesn't consider herself a Good Samaritan, and just did what most others would do: She saw a crime being committed and tried to help.

Aaron Eric Rodrigues, 30, was arrested at Pali Highway and Jack Lane at 9:44 a.m. Tuesday, nearly a half-hour after the incident began. Rodrigues was booked for investigation of kidnapping, second-degree robbery and unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle.

Rodrigues allegedly forced his way into a female acquaintance's Buick on Kea'ahala Road in Kane'ohe near Kahekili Highway, hit her and drove off with the woman inside. Harden followed and helped direct police to the suspect.

"What Harden did is probably the key to the case," police Sgt. Lloyd Sanborn said yesterday. "She saw what happened, came foward and gave a statement to police.

"She did it right. She didn't confront the suspect and get in harm's way. She stayed on the line with us and helped us locate him."

Harden, reached at her office yesterday, said she was still rattled by the incident.

"I'm definitely not made out to be a police officer," she said. "I didn't think it would get to me like it has, but all I could think about was the woman who was brutally murdered in Kailua last year in a domestic dispute."

She said she was driving in Kane'ohe Tuesday morning when "the car in front of me and the car in back of me, we all slowed down when we saw this skinny guy beating on the window of this car. He looked enraged and it was scary."

The other two vehicles drove off, Harden said, but she pulled over to take note of the Buick's license plate number and call 911.

As she did, the man pulled down the window of the Buick and forced his way inside, hitting the woman repeatedly. Police said the victim and suspect had been acquaintances for about a month and had been arguing.

The man drove off. Harden said she feared for the woman's safety.

"It was so frustrating because he starts driving through neighborhoods and I'm trying to tell dispatch where we are and can't," Harden said. "At one point when he was getting on the (Pali) highway he looked back at me. He knew I was following him and he kept trying to lose me."

A dispatcher told Harden that if she felt she was in danger to stop following the suspect. She said she wasn't and continued to stay behind him, reaching speeds of 60 mph on Pali Highway.

"I wasn't driving reckless but I stayed within eyesight," she said. "The officer on the phone was great. The police sent out a helicopter."

With Harden's information, police officers from the Kalihi and Kane'ohe substations converged on the car and arrested Rodrigues in Nu'uanu.

Harden parked about 30 yards from the suspect and gave police a statement. "I do believe wherever he would have taken that woman, whether she knew him or not, she would have been in harm's way," she said. "I have a newfound respect for our officers because they put themselves in harm's way every day. I couldn't handle it."