A Utah child is safe after her father prevented her from being kidnapped early Friday morning.

Police say that 46-year-old Troy Morley unlawfully entered a home on Rembrandt Lane in Sandy, and grabbed a five-year-old girl. The girl's father witnessed the near abduction.

Morley entered the family's home through an unlocked door, and began rummaging through items in the basement. Sandy Police Sgt. Dean Carriger said the intruder came upon the girl, and carried her upstairs and outside. The girl's parents were awakened by the front door opening, and the father saw Morley carrying his daughter across the front lawn.

After being confronted, Morley surrendered the girl, and entered a home on E. White River Drive through a dog door. Tina Olsen heard noises in her home, and went to downstairs to investigate.

"I went downstairs, and he was crouched up kind of by the back door with no shirt on," Olsen recounted. "And he just said like, 'Am I bad? Am I in trouble?' I just started screaming and ran up the stairs and told my husband, 'There's a man in the house.'"

Police were already in the area due to the 911 call that the family on Rembrandt Lane placed. When Morley fled from Olsen's house, he was quickly apprehended by canine units. Sgt. Carriger said that although no one was injured, the situation was very disturbing.

"It obviously was a very scary, traumatic situation," he said. "The sanctity of our home is huge and for somebody to enter that and grab your child, it's got to be one of the worst nightmares a parent could face. . . If those parents were not awakened to go out and investigate, he could have easily left undetected with the girl."

Next-door neighbour Melissa Johnson thanked God that the situation didn't end worse.

"I've been thinking that the Heavenly Father had a hand it," she said. "He was protecting them. . . I just hope it won't be traumatising for the little girl."

Morley is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail.