PORTLAND, Ore. -- A woman sleeping in a Northeast Portland apartment was startled awake by a burglar licking her back early Monday morning, according to investigators.

Portland police/kgw.com

Ismond Hale was arrested in the string of burglaries.

The man fled on foot after she woke up. Police said the woman’s underwear had been sliced in two and cash was missing from her apartment.

Just about an hour earlier, around 3:30 a.m., a man living in an apartment nearby on NE 125th Place said he awoke to find a stranger crouched beside his bed. The intruder ran off in that case as well.

Police think it was the same man in both incidents. They arrested Ismond Hale at another apartment in the same complex. He claimed he had spent the night with his girlfriend and said they had arrested the wrong man.

Hale was charged with attempted sex abuse and burglary.

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