A pet cat has been hailed a heroine after alerting its owners to a burglary.

The Szpulecka family, Urszula, Robert and their daughter Justyna - were asleep when burglars forced their way in to their home in Harp Inge, Dalton at 5am on Wednesday morning.

But their cat Nikki, upon hearing the intruders, darted upstairs and alerted Robert something was wrong.

Justyna, 17, said: “We have two cats and they are shut in the living room at night when we are asleep.

“My dad woke up to find Nikki scratching him and meowing and at first he tried to shoo her away.

“But she was really loud and he got up to take her back downstairs.

“That’s when he heard footsteps downstairs and realised we were being burgled.”

Vikki the heroine cat, woke owners to warn them of an intruder, left to right, Robert Szpulecki, Justyna Szpulecka, Urszula Szpulecka and Laura Krawecka with Nikki's mother Samantha.

The family tried to phone police upstairs and realised their phone line had been cut and used a mobile to ring police.

Justyna added: “We are relieved they didn’t come upstairs and that could be down to Nikki. She is a heroine.

“She is really afraid of strangers so she must have bolted as soon as the door was opened to the kitchen.

“It’s scary what has happened. We don’t even know how they got in as the windows and doors were locked.

“They stole two laptops, my dad’s rucksack, wallet and bank cards.

“His wallet had £90 cash which he was going to use to pay the water bill which will have to wait now.

“He went to the bank to cancel his cards. We’ve been checking our paper work and hope our insurance will cover it.”

The Szpulecka family moved to Huddersfield from Poland 12 years ago and have never been burgled before.

West Yorkshire Police have been informed of the incident and are investigating.

Anyone with information should contact police on 101.