3 Men Held in ‘Follow-Home’ Robberies : Crime: Police say wealthy, elderly couples were the primary targets. One suspect is still being sought in the string of at least 120 holdups.

Police on Tuesday announced the arrest of three men wanted in at least 120 “follow-home” armed robberies of elderly couples in affluent areas of Los Angeles and nearby suburbs in the last year and a half.

No one was hurt in the string of robberies, although a gunman often threatened to kill the victims or blow up their homes if they notified police, authorities said.

Several victims said the man who robbed them was soft-spoken and polite; in one case, he even gave back a woman’s wedding ring after she pleaded for it as a souvenir of more than 50 years of marriage.

But generally the robbers kept their loot, which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewels and cash, police said. None of it has been recovered.

The robbers, striking as often as four times a day and sometimes exasperating police by lying low for weeks, would follow people home from theaters, restaurants or supermarkets. The typical victim was about 75 years old, police said.

Arrested at the scene of a robbery in Hollywood on Monday night was Isadore Henry, 34, a Mid-City resident, who police said was usually the gunman. Another suspect, Michael Carswell, 34, was also taken into custody at the scene. Early Tuesday morning, a third suspect, Andre Dukes, 33, also a Mid-City resident and the man police said usually drove the robbers’ car, was arrested at his home. A fourth suspect was still being sought.

Police said the robbers sometimes stalked their victims--many of whom kept regular schedules of dining, shopping and meetings on certain nights of the week--to learn their habits. The gunman, his face always hidden by a scarf, ski mask or hat, would hide in bushes or other dark areas near the front door or carport, then confront the victims and force them inside at gunpoint. In some cases he demanded particular pieces of jewelry the victim had worn on previous days. The driver and the getaway car stayed out of sight.

A Pacific Palisades resident who was robbed earlier this year said she was about to close her garage door “when I felt a pressure on my neck.” The gunman “took me upstairs to look for jewels. He said he’d blow up the house if we called the police.”

She and her husband turned over cash and jewelry worth about $10,000.

The gunman said, “If you turn around and look at me again, I’m going to kill you,” the husband said.

His wife added: “We’re lucky we’re alive.”

The suspects used similar techniques to take $50,000 in cash and jewels from a home in Encino on Sunday morning, police said.

But until the suspects were caught by detectives who saw them rob an elderly couple Monday night in Hollywood, there were no witnesses who could put them at the scene of a crime.

“I would say it was very highly professional,” said Los Angeles Police Detective Ron Phillips. “They were very good at it.”

Debby Oppenheim, a neighbor of Henry, the suspected gunman, said neighbors often wondered about the use of Henry’s house, which has been up for sale for several months. The home appeared to only be used late at night, she said, when expensive cars, including a Corvette and Ford Explorer, would come and go. Police said one of their few leads was one holdup victim’s fleeting glimpse of a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Police said Henry owns a delicatessen and a car detailing company.

Police said Dukes, the suspected driver, worked for Universal Studios. Christine Hanson, an official of MCA Inc., said she could not confirm Dukes’ status because there was a discrepancy between the name as reported by police and the one listed on corporate records.

After 1 1/2 years of frustrating police work (“We’ll solve that one after we solve the (decades-old) Black Dahlia (murder) case,” one officer said earlier this year), it was information from a traffic stop for erratic driving two months ago that led to the arrests. The vehicle fit the description given by one of the victims, allowing police to target the suspects.