Linda Dodson, 45, said a large man entered her room and attacked her at 3:37 a.m. Monday while her mother was sleeping in the next room, KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, reported Thursday.

"He had his big hands ... on my throat, my mouth and my nose and I'm flopping ... when he released his hand for a second, I just let out this blood-scorching scream," Dodson said.

Dodson's mother said she came into her daughter's room to investigate the scream and jumped onto the attacker's back. However, she said she decided to switch tactics after the attacker threw her against a wall and grabbed her face so hard the lenses popped out of her glasses.

"I just looked at him because I could tell he had been drinking and I said, 'I don't know about

you, but I could use a beer, how about you?'" she said. "And he said yes."

The mother and daughter took the suspect into their living room and gave him a beer, which seemed to calm him. Linda Dodson said she phoned 911 after excusing herself to go to the bathroom and police arrived soon after.

Louie Herrera, a convicted child molester, was arrested on suspicion of residential burglary, false imprisonment, and resisting arrest.