Query Won't Work In Mongoose – Does Mongoose Not Accept '$query'?

Why does this query return an empty array with no results? There are records in the database, and I can query them if I just use a .find({ owner: req.params.ownerID }) but mongoose appears to not accept the $query...

if (!req.query.criteria) {
    req.query.criteria = {
        $query :{},
        $orderby: {
            created: -1
        }
    };
}
req.query.criteria['$query'].owner = req.params.ownerID;

Product.find(req.query.criteria).limit(10).exec()