Man Accused of Placing Blades on Car Seats : Crime: A suspect is arrested after seven women are injured by razor-like objects left in unlocked cars. No motive has been found.

A 53-year-old man was arrested in Burbank on suspicion of concealing razor-like blades in the car seats of 14 unsuspecting motorists in Burbank and Simi Valley, cutting seven women, Burbank police said Wednesday.

Several of the women required stitches on the backs of their thighs, but none were seriously injured, police said. No motive for the attacks has been discovered, police said.

Gary Jean Muntifering of Ventura, an unemployed commercial fisherman, was arrested Tuesday night at a K mart parking lot in the 1000 block of North San Fernando Road, Burbank Police Detective Roger Mason said. Officers who had staked out the lot saw a black Nissan pickup truck with a white camper shell, which matched a description of the suspect’s vehicle given by one of the victims.

Detectives, who watched Muntifering moving from car to car in the parking lot, took him into custody and later found several dozen heavy-duty utility blades in his truck, Mason said. The 1 1/2-inch blades--similar to razor blades but bigger and stronger--are designed for industrial cutting tools. They are sold at most hardware stores, police said.

Police are investigating Muntifering in connection with 14 assaults from last Thursday to Monday, including two in Burbank on different days in the parking lot of the Vons grocery store at 1011 N. San Fernando Road.

The other 12 assaults occurred in Simi Valley parking lots, police said. In seven instances, the motorists discovered the blades before they were injured, police said.

“They took place in supermarket or shopping center parking lots in vehicles that were left unlocked,” Mason said. “He seemed to select certain locations and return there. He had several stores in Simi Valley he would return to over and over.”

“Sometimes the razors were lying in a crevice (in car seats), other times they were positioned vertically” by inserting them into the seat cushion, Simi Valley Lt. Mark Layhew said.

Muntifering was arrested on suspicion of aggravated mayhem and assault with a deadly weapon and remained in Burbank jail Tuesday in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Police said that they planned to ask the Los Angeles district attorney’s office to file charges against Muntifering today and that he may be arraigned later in the day at Burbank Municipal Court.

Assault with a deadly weapon carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said.

Layhew said Simi Valley police will decide whether to seek charges against Muntifering in connection with the Ventura County incidents after he is arraigned in Burbank.

Julie Tamaki is a Times staff writer and Julie Fields is a special correspondent.