ST CHARLES, Mo. — Carmen Reyes and her girlfriend came home one Sunday evening in mid-February to a strange scene: Their patio door was unlocked.
The couple was religious about locking the door because their beloved terrier-labrador mix Roma had figured out how to open it if it was ever unlocked.
The next day, Feb. 21, Reyes started noticing more strange things around her home. Cash she kept in her drawers was missing. She couldn't find some of her electronic devices. And her mother's jewelry was also missing.
She called police and found out she was among at least 20 other St. Charles residents who had been burglarized within the past few weeks.
"That feeling that you're not safe in your house is very, very scary, we couldn't sleep for like three days, we were just constantly thinking, 'Is that something?' if there was ever a sound outside or if something was moving or whatever,'" she said.
On Thursday, Reyes got the news she was hoping for: Police had made an arrest.
They say, they couldn't have done it so quickly without her -- and are now trying to track down other victims to build a case against him that could stretch as far away as Kansas City, Missouri to return their stolen belongings.
"People were actually in the residences asleep when they were occurring," said St. Charles Police Capt. Raymond Floyd. "So our biggest fear was, at some point, he's going to get caught in a residence he has access to, possibly in possession of a firearm and it could lead to someone getting severely hurt or killed."
St. Charles County prosecutors charged Dominique Hudson, 31, of Cahokia with one county of first-degree burglary Thursday, and he is being held on $20,000 cash-only bail as detectives work to connect other crimes to him.
"He was also employed as a truck driver that took him throughout the state of Missouri, so there could be crimes anywhere from Illinois to Kansas City," Floyd said.
Some of the victims had surveillance systems that helped capture images of the suspect. But it was a tracking device inside one of Reyes' stolen electronic devices that led police to his girlfriend's house in St. Charles late Wednesday.
Police showed Hudson some of the surveillance images when they pulled him over.
"He said, 'That's me. Why do you have a picture of me?'" Floyd said. "So that was priceless."
Police then searched Hudson's girlfriend's house in St. Charles where the found numerous stolen laptops, computers, video game equipment, $7,000 in cash and guns.
Floyd believes police will find more stolen items once they search his house in Cahokia.
Most of the burglaries in St. Charles happened in and around apartment complexes along Friedens Road.
Most of the incidents happened in mid-February, although the burglar struck again earlier this week, Floyd said.
Hudson has been out on probation since 2018 for burglary.
Floyd said some burglary victims didn't even know they had been targeted until police started going door-to-door at their complexes. The burglar would slice screens with a razor to unlock doors and let himself in, or to unlock windows.
"While they were responding to these burglaries, they were able to discover some burglaries that had not been reported," Floyd said. "People had noticed that maybe there was mud on the floor and they just didn't think anything about it.
"And when confronted with the evidence that we were investigating a burglary they were able to determine entry was actually made into their house, but nothing had been stolen."
Reyes said it took her almost 24 hours to realize her home had been burglarized.
And, now that there's been an arrest, she's sleeping easier.
"My country is a very unsafe place," said Reyes, who is from Venezuela and is studying at Lindenwood University. "I always felt like very safe here in the U.S."
After helping detectives catch the alleged criminal, Reyes said she is considering changing her career path toward law enforcement.
"It was very, very scary," she said. "I'm glad they catch him.
"I'm glad I was a part of it, trying to catch this person. And it's a relief for me right now."
If you think you might have been a victim, or want to know if police have found your stolen goods, contact St. Charles Police at 636-949-3300 and ask to speak to an investigator.