It’s a cold and rainy night in upstate New York when something wakes up Matilda at three o’clock in the morning. The seven-year-old girl leaps out of her bed in a near panic, and races down the hall to her parents’ bedroom. Shaking her mother, she yells, "Mommy, Mommy, there’s a man and two dogs in my bedroom."

"Nonsense, you’re just having a bad dream," responds the sleepy-headed mother. "Go back to bed and get some rest. Tomorrow’s a school day."

Reluctantly the little girl goes back to her bedroom and eventually falls back asleep. The next day, after husband and daughter have both left, the woman of the house finds muddy tracks all over the upstairs rugs.

The police come and take pictures of the muddy tracks. Nothing seems to be missing. The little girl gives police such a vivid description of the man she said she saw in her bedroom that a local homeless man becomes an immediate suspect.

"Probably trying to get in out of the cold and wet," says a sergeant. "He’s never hurt anybody — but he will steal."

A day later, a bridge tollbooth operator tells police he saw the suspect trying to hitch a ride south over the bridge. Hours later there’s a report of a pickup truck stolen from the south end of the bridge.

Several months go by when New York police receive a fax from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office in Florida. They’ve arrested the suspect for shoplifting at a Daytona Beach WalMart. Two dogs the suspect claims belong to him are taken to the Volusia County SPCA.

The Florida deputies next e-mail a photo of the arrested man.

"That’s him!" says Matilda the moment they show her the picture. "That’s the man I saw in my bedroom." The girl looks up at her parents: "Now do you believe me?"