CLAY TWP — A suspected criminal was arrested Saturday after leaving behind a major clue — his credit card.

It didn’t take long for state police to find the suspect, Brent E. Henry, 41, of East Butler, who faces felony and other charges in the case.

Police believe Henry about 4 a.m. Saturday used his credit card to pick the lock on the garage door at a mobile home on Queen Junction Road in Clay Township.

But homeowner Dennis Dunkle heard noises and caught the suspect, investigators said. Henry ran out a back door in the garage. However, in his haste he dropped the credit card.

“The credit card displayed the name Brent Henry,” a police affidavit said.

It turned out that Dunkle knew Henry, who recently had been staying at a nearby mobile home. Troopers immediately went to that trailer and found two children, ages 4 and 13, home alone, sleeping.

Police eventually found Henry, who admitted he opened Dunkle’s garage door with the credit card, documents said.

He told investigators he was looking for gasoline for a friend’s car and thought Dunkle was away.

Henry said he was startled when the homeowner came out the door, and he ran off and “because he knew he had done wrong,” a police affidavit said.

He said he also wanted to get back quickly to the trailer where he was staying and where the children were sleeping.

Henry claimed he was out of the house for only five minutes.

He was later arraigned on felony and summary counts of trespass and a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment. He was released on $5,000 unsecured bail following arraignment.