4 Held in 2 Computer Robberies : Crime: Microchips and cash were stolen from one store, then a second shop’s owner was wounded. Police from Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Fountain Valley join a ground and air manhunt.

Armed robbers struck two county computer dealers within an hour Thursday, tying up employees and stealing microchips and cash from the first store and wounding the owner of the second, police said.

Police were unsure Thursday night whether the two robberies were connected.

The method in the first robbery was similar to that used in a recent rash of microchip heists by Vietnamese crime rings, which have been blamed for at least eight attacks on computer companies in the last year, police said. They said they do not know whether the same crime rings might be involved.

More than 25 police officers from Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Fountain Valley joined a manhunt for the shooting suspects in Fountain Valley. A helicopter flew over the area at Wisteria and Lassen streets, asking residents over a megaphone which

way the suspects went and ordering them to go inside and locktheir doors.

Four Vietnamese-American men were captured and arrested by Santa Ana police on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and armed robbery. One of them was caught hiding under a pool table, while a bloodhound sniffed out another who was hiding in a shed behind a Lassen Street home, police said.

In the first of the robberies, four men entered P.H. Computers on Brookhurst Street in Fountain Valley.

“They came in with ropes, all ready to go,” Fountain Valley Police Lt. Rod Gillman said. “They brandished a shotgun and handguns and herded (employees) into the rear of the store, where they tied them up.”

While one robber kept watch, the others took cash, microchips and computer hardware, including central processing units, and went through the employees’ pockets, Gillman said.

No injuries were reported.

The four men then fled in a late-model silver Toyota minivan, which had been reported stolen in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Gillman said.

The robbery was reported to Fountain Valley police at 12:36 p.m., Gillman said.

Fountain Valley investigators have no evidence that the same suspects were involved in the Santa Ana shooting, Gillman said, but he added that given the time, location and description of the suspects, police will investigate whether there is a connection.

“It’s such a coincidence that if it’s not the same people, maybe it’s more of the same group,” Gillman said. “We’re talking maybe three miles maximum between the locations. That’s plenty of time to dump (the first) car and go do another one.”

At 1:03 p.m., two Garden Grove police officers on an undercover gang-related surveillance saw several Asian men, whom they recognized as members of the Cheap Boys gang, run out of A.H. Computers on West Warner Avenue in Santa Ana, Garden Grove Police Lt. Chuck Gibbs said.

“We weren’t watching them specifically for microchips,” Gibbs said. “We knew they were involved in home robberies and robberies of businesses like this one today. But these gangs get involved in a lot of different things. . . . We’ve been watching to see what all they’re up to.”

The officers heard the shots fired and saw the suspects jump into a silver Honda Accord driven by a fourth man and speed off, with the officers in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Santa Ana police received a report of a shooting at the store. When they arrived, they found Anxuan Huynh, 29, shot in the thigh, Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said.

Gibbs said Huynh was wounded while resisting the attempted robbery. Santa Ana police said nothing was taken during the aborted heist. Huynh was treated at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center and released, hospital officials said.

The Garden Grove officers chased the suspects to the 16000 block of Mount Michaels Circle, across the border in Fountain Valley, where the suspects abandoned their car.

There police arrested Tinh Nguyen, 21, of Santa Ana, Helton said. The other two men ran toward Wisteria Street, by this time with more officers and a helicopter in pursuit.

Thang Van Nguyen, 20, of Anaheim, and Be Van Nguyen, 23, of Garden Grove, whom police said are brothers, were arrested within minutes.

About an hour later, a bloodhound brought in to search for guns used in the shooting found Tung Phuong Trinh, 20, of Garden Grove, hiding in a nearby shed, police said.

A .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun and a .38-caliber revolver were recovered, Santa Ana police said.

“We have not found any computer chips,” Helton said. “Whether or not there’s any association, we don’t know. The (suspects) we have here are not talking to us.”

Federal agencies, including the FBI and Customs Service, have said they are investigating the involvement of Vietnamese gangs in thefts of microchips, which are then sold on the international black market.

Officials said there have been at least 12 armed robberies in which microchips were stolen in the last year in the Orange County and San Jose areas, and at least eight of them were carried out by Vietnamese groups. Western Digital Corp. of Irvine alone has estimated that in 1989 it lost $7 million in chips.

Express Manufacturing Inc., an Santa Ana electronic company, was robbed in August by armed Vietnamese suspects who tied up the employees and stole $500,000 in microchips, Santa Ana police have said.

Computer dealers like A.H. Computer and P.H. Computers have stocks of microchips on hands because they assemble computers.

COMPUTER THEFT CHASE 1. Four Men rob P.H. Computers, 16533 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley, and tie up employees, who notify police at 12:36 p.m. They flee in stolen mini-van. 2. Two miles away and 27 minutes later, robbery at A.H. Computer Co., 2929 West Warner Ave., Santa Ana is reported. Store owner is shot in the thigh. Police chase after two men who flee in a Honda Accord driven by a third man. 3. The three suspects abandon car in 16000 block of Mt. Michaels Circle, Fountain Valley. One suspect is arrested. 4. Two more suspects run to Wisteria Avenue and Lassen Street. They are found hiding on Wisteria--one under a tarp on pool table behind a house, the other behind a shrub. 5. An hour later, a bloodhound sniffs out a fourth suspect hiding in a nearby shed.