NEWS: He woke up in the middle of the night to see a stranger holding his daughter.

By SHAUNA ANDERSON

Just the thought of it chills you.

A family asleep in their home, safe,  when a man breaks into their house in the early hours of the morning and kidnaps their five-year old daughter.

The awful circumstances could have gone disastrously wrong – but for this lucky family they didn’t.

Aaron Edson and his wife Stephanie from Utah in the US woke up to the sound of their front door opening – terrifying in itself.

What they did not know was that a man was fleeing their home after snatching their five-year old daughter.

Troy Mitchell Morley had allegedly broke into the house rummaged through several rooms before spotting and grabbing the little girl out of her bed.

As he fled across the front garden with the five-year old in his arms a neighbour reports hearing the child scream.

Aaron Edson ran outside dressed only in his pajama bottoms and a hoodie and saw the man holding his five-year old stepdaughter.

CNN reports he screamed “What are you doing, that’s my daughter, you’re not taking her!”

46-year old Troy Morley dropped the girl and ran.

KSL.com has released the 911 call made by the little girl’s mother

She frantically cries “There was a man in my home and he took my five-year-old daughter.

“And I happened to wake up and he had my daughter outside, and my husband ran out there and got him. But he took my five-year-old daughter.”

“But do you have your daughter back now?” said the dispatcher.

“Yeah, but he’s out there somewhere,” she said. “He came in my home…He took my daughter from my house.”

The man ran but was soon captured by police after he broke into a neighbours’ home.

Miles Holman, attorney and spokesman for a family, said “Fifteen seconds later, the guy would have been 50 yards outside the house, he would have been gone.”

“I think that you’re going to hear that a miracle occurred here today” .

Police say there was no known connection between the family.

Morley has been charged with child kidnapping, burglary, trespassing and resisting arrest.

The little girl was not harmed and the family are now back together relieved and shocked by their lucky escape.