Husbands Are Being Held at Gunpoint, Caller Tells Women : Terror: Mystery man has made at least 42 such calls to homes of San Gabriel Valley couples listed in phone books. He tells wives he has abducted the men for ransom.

A mysterious telephone caller has harassed at least 42 San Gabriel Valley women since April with phone calls in which he claims to be holding their husbands hostage at gunpoint, authorities said.

No husbands have actually been held hostage and no one has been physically injured. But the calls can be a terrifying experience, one of the victims said.

West Covina Detective Dennis Edwards said police believe that one man may be responsible because of the similar nature of the calls. He said the caller apparently selects as his targets people who are listed as a couple in the phone book.

All of the victims have been listed in the telephone directory, said Lt. Phil Bollington of the Temple City substation of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Twelve of the victims are from Pasadena, 12 from Monrovia, eight from West Covina, nine from Glendora and one from Temple City, police and sheriff’s officials said.

Glendora Police Agent Kathy Harbour said victims reported that the caller sounds like a male in his 30s, possibly with an East Coast or New York accent.

Police said the caller informs women that he has abducted their husbands for ransom, tied them up and gagged them, and is holding a gun to their heads. Edwards said the caller has demanded from $2,000 to $5,000.

No one apparently has given the caller any money.

He also has ordered the women to call him “Sir” and has used the husbands’ first names.

Sgt. Monte Yancey of the Pasadena Police Department said that in some instances, the husbands were present when their wives received the calls. The last report in Pasadena was a week ago, Yancey said.

The caller sometimes threatens wives by telling them that two men are standing outside their homes waiting for them, Harbour said. The caller also has asked sexually explicit questions, she said.

Sheriff’s authorities in Temple City said the latest report came from a woman who called Thursday morning.

The woman did not file a formal police report, Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Patterson said.

On Wednesday morning, the man made at least four calls to Monrovia women, police said. One of the victims was Pasadena Star-News reporter Janice Luder, who wrote a first-person piece on the incident for Thursday’s newspaper.

The caller, Luder wrote, said he had her husband bound and gagged and added “I have a gun to his head.”

When she asked if he was serious, the caller responded: “This is not a joke, and I will do the talking. You just listen.”

Eventually, Luder hung up and called her husband at work. He was not there.

“My mouth went dry and my legs felt like sprung guitar strings,” Luder said in the article.

As she dialed 911, “a creeping sense of foreboding and vulnerability took over. Please God, let him be alright (sic),” she wrote.

She said the 911 operator told her that she was the fourth woman in 20 minutes to report a similar call.

“My first reaction was relief,” she wrote. “I was just another random victim of some sicko.

“Then I felt angry and violated,” she said. “A faceless voice momentarily had held incredible power over me.”

Kathleen Flynn, a spokeswoman for Pacific Bell, said the company has been informed of the calls.

“For obscene phone calls . . . we recommend simply hanging up,” she said. Calls can be traced if customers request it. However, because the caller only phones once, such technology would be unlikely to help. Phone company officials were unable to determine Thursday whether anyone had requested tracing in connection with the case.

Police and sheriff’s officials said there are no plans to form a task force to catch the caller.

Dr. Martin Reiser, chief psychologist for the Los Angeles Police Department, said such callers frequently are sexually motivated.

“People who make threats and phone calls and try to get some kind of sexual response obviously are people with sexual hang-ups and probably are getting some kind of satisfaction from possibly upsetting the woman in the first place and by getting response from the woman,” Reiser said.