The incident unfolded about 9.30pm yesterday when residents on Prominent Rise in Hillbank heard screeching tyres and a loud bang, followed by two people fleeing towards a river.

“I started yelling at them and there were a few expletives in there but once they’d seen me, they kind of didn’t know what to do,” local father and tradie Scott Bradshaw said.

“One of them ran and she came, compliantly.”

He added: “I dragged them up the creek, but kept my distance because I didn’t know what they had in their pockets and then just said if you move well, I won’t let you move.”

Bradshaw then performed a citizen’s arrest on the woman, holding her until authorities arrived.

“That’s really brave,” said Joyce Teague, a Hillbank resident. 

“I don’t think I could do something like that.”

Police arrested a 32-year-old woman from the Mid North and charged her with illegal use of a motor vehicle and driving while disqualified. 

CCTV footage captured a second person fleeing through a paddock for more than a kilometre, eventually reaching Salisbury Park. 

Police then arrested a 40-year-old man and charged him with illegal use of a motor vehicle.

The Hyundai the pair was travelling in was allegedly stolen from Salisbury Plain two weeks earlier.