RENTON, Wash. - A sleepless cat might have stopped a convicted sex offender from attacking a local teen. The cat woke up its owner, who then discovered a man inside her house.

Police believe the man broke in through a back window and was targeting the cat owner's 18-year-old daughter, Sierra Paull.

"When my mom had woke me up in the morning and said he had gone through my stuff, I kind of had the fear - why did he only go through my things? Why didn't he take anything else in the house?" she said.

Sierra's mother spotted the intruder when she walked in to the living room. He was crouched down and hiding on the couch.

"It was just me and my daughter here, so I just responded with 'what are you doing here?' and told him 'you need to get out,' and I was just fortunate he left, " said Sierra's mother, Luella Paull.

What Luella didn't realize was that the man brought in a cinder block from outside and went through the Paulls' kitchen.

"I noticed that there was something stuck in the couch, and it was where my mom said she had found him. It was one of our kitchen knives," Sierra said.

Luella says she recognized the man from the neighborhood and, after a couple of days, were able to piece together that the burglar was a level-one sex offender.

That man, David Kaulitzke, was arrested a few days later.

"I'm glad that he's in jail, but I never thought that would happen to me," Sierra said.

Following the incident, the Paull family also got a dog. They say they're determined never to get caught off guard again.

David Kaulitzke is being held on $50,000 bail.