Pair Arrested in 27 Bank Robberies : Crime: The two are suspected in a string of thefts in the Valley that began last summer and included two on Tuesday.

Two men suspected in 27 San Fernando Valley bank robberies were arrested in Van Nuys on Tuesday after an FBI agent, driving through the Valley as he investigated a fresh series of bank robberies, recognized one of them at a traffic light, authorities said.

The men led FBI agents, Los Angeles police and the California Highway Patrol on a brief chase along the Ventura and San Diego freeways and may have shot at a police helicopter along the way, although no bullet holes were found in the aircraft.

Their arrests at the Victory Boulevard exit of the San Diego Freeway came on a day when there were seven bank robberies in the Valley alone--possibly a record, according to Detective Dennis Frealy.

“If it’s not, I can’t believe there’s been more than that in the Valley,” Frealy said.

The arrested men were identified as Charles Gonzalez, 29, and George L. Hernandez, 32, both of Los Angeles. They were being held without bail at the Van Nuys Jail on suspicion of bank robbery, said Lt. Ken Lady, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s bank robbery unit.

Police have nicknamed the men involved in the robberies the “Stereo Bandits” because, to prevent theft from their own car, they often carried a removable radio with them into the banks they robbed. Lady said they usually made a verbal demand for money and were not considered violent.

Gonzalez and Hernandez were tied to two bank robberies Tuesday, one at Trans World Bank in Granada Hills, 11011 Balboa Blvd., and one at Wells Fargo Bank in Encino, 15760 Ventura Blvd., said Lady and FBI spokesman John Hoos. Police refused to disclose how much money was taken.

The 25 other robberies that the men are suspected in began last summer.

The FBI agent saw the suspects on Balboa Boulevard as they waited in their blue Ford Granada at a traffic light. He followed them to Ventura Boulevard in Encino, where, while he waited for backup officers to arrive, one of the men walked into the bank. The FBI agent did not know that the man was robbing the Wells Fargo Bank, Lady said.

The chase began when the FBI agent followed the men as they left the bank and headed toward the San Diego Freeway, Hoos and police said. By then, other law enforcement units, including a Los Angeles police helicopter, began following the car.

“Apparently when we got above them, they realized some type of law enforcement was following them and they took off,” said Officer Glen Marczinko, who was in the helicopter.

Marczinko said he and the pilot thought the men fired at their helicopter during the 90-m.p.h. chase because the police “saw them stick their hands out the window, and they weren’t waving.” The helicopter broke off the chase and landed at nearby Van Nuys Airport as a precaution, Marczinko said. The men finally were arrested without incident.

In an unrelated case, police also arrested a man Tuesday as he left a Security Pacific Bank in Studio City at 12155 Ventura Blvd. Paroled bank robber George Kube, 57, was being held at the Van Nuys Jail on suspicion of bank robbery and was expected to be returned to federal prison, Lady said.