Kim Hudlow does not look like your average crime fighter, but last week the 5-foot tall mother of three helped stop a crime wave.
Hudlow said she has been the victim of theft twice in the last three years, and each time, she solved the crime and made sure the suspects were arrested. Four people currently are in prison because of her work.
Six more suspects were arrested on felony charges last week when she helped local authorities put an end to a ring of car burglars. Authorities said the teenagers had been stealing purses, wallets and technology from locals all summer. More arrests and charges could be coming in the case, investigators added.
When she isn’t fighting crime, Hudlow, 36, runs Bay Kids Academy, a child-care center. Her husband, David Hudlow, 39, owns Centennial Roofing. The family has lived in Bay County for a decade.
Hudlow’s daughter left her mom’s purse in the family’s plumb-colored 2008 Buick Enclave on Aug. 2. The car was parked in the driveway of their home in Kings Point, just west of the airport, when a group of teenagers opened the unlocked vehicle and snatched Hudlow’s purse. Hudlow discovered it was gone the next day and filed a report with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. But she got to work on the case, too.
Hudlow said she called her credit card company and got a list of charges made on the card over the weekend. Then, she started snooping.
Hudlow enlisted friends to look be on the lookout for other items that had been in her purse. A scrap of paper with her husband’s dental appointment on it led Hudlow to a local neighborhood.
With a fairly good idea of where the suspects lived, Hudlow began driving the area and talking to people. She found the car she had seen on a security tape parked at a local driveway. Hudlow then decided to knock on the door and talk to the teen’s parents.
“I was nervous,” Hudlow said of the encounter. “I would be lying to you if I didn’t tell you I had a million butterflies in my stomach.”
The man who answered the door was the father of one of the suspects. He had no idea what his son had done, she said.
The man told her he would take his son to the Sheriff’s Office, where he would give back the stolen property and confess.
When the other families heard what had happened and that their children might be involved, the parents also brought their children to the Sheriff’s Office to return the stolen items and confess to what they had done.
Hudlow’s purse was stolen on a Saturday night; Hudlow had solved the case by the following Tuesday.
Note: Although solving this case was not her job, it goes to show what one determined mom can do. Is solving problems a talent of your own and something you would consider turning into a business?
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