Man Arrested in Series of Restaurant, Store Holdups : Crime: Police say the suspect had robbed the same doughnut shop three times before. This time, however, officers were waiting for him.

It was not the smartest move a crook could make.

Over the weekend, 23-year-old Steven Howe tried to stick up the same Burbank doughnut shop he had robbed three times in the past two weeks with the business end of a spark plug wrench, according to police.

This time, however, two undercover officers were waiting for Howe, suspected by police of having led a ring of thieves responsible for 20 robberies in the southeast San Fernando Valley over the past several weeks.

Howe and three of his alleged partners were arrested on suspicion of robbery. The three Burbank residents were held on $250,000 bail. Howe was jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Burbank police said money from the robberies of convenience stores and fast-food restaurants was used by the four to buy cocaine. “These kids are all on coke,” Lt. Scott Moody said. “Most of their proceeds were going to support their cocaine habits.”

It was not known how much money was stolen in the robberies.

According to Moody, the robbery spree began in late June. Although most of the robberies were committed in Burbank, Moody said police in North Hollywood, Sun Valley and Glendale reported nearly identical crimes.

In several of the robberies, Howe or his accomplices drove up to the drive-through windows of fast-food restaurants and demanded money with their food, Moody said. “What they would do is drive up to the window and when the cash register opened, they would stick a simulated gun in the clerk’s face and say, ‘Give me all the money,’ ” Moody said.

The “gun” turned out to be a spark plug wrench. “The clerk would see the round chrome hidden in the arm of a shirt and it looks like the barrel of a gun,” Moody said.

But Moody said Howe’s repetitious nature ended up being his undoing. About 10 p.m. Friday, Howe pulled his shirt up to cover his face, concealed his spark plug wrench and tried to rob the Winchell’s doughnut shop near Hollywood Way and Burbank Boulevard--a shop he had robbed three times before, Moody said.

Two plainclothes police officers saw Howe approach the counter and chased him down, Moody said. They also arrested another man, who was suspected of driving the getaway car. Two others were arrested at their house in the 1700 block of North Hollywood Way after police learned that the pair owned one of the cars used in some of the crimes, Moody said.

Moody said Howe did not demonstrate acute criminal cunning in choosing to rob a doughnut shop, traditionally a favored hangout for police. “If he’d have gotten away with that, think how we would have felt,” Moody said. “That would have been pretty embarrassing.”