4 Arrested in Series of Valley Follow-Home Robberies : Crime: Two men and two teen-agers are jailed, but no names are released. Three more similar holdups are reported, one of them at gunpoint.

Four suspects have been arrested in the string of follow-home robberies that have victimized San Fernando Valley Christmas shoppers, police said Friday.

“We have people in custody that we think may be involved in this, but beyond that we’re not going to divulge any information,” Lt. John Dunkin said.

The male suspects, ages 25, 21, 16 and 15, were booked on suspicion of auto theft after their arrest in what police said was a stolen vehicle. Officials refused to release the names of the suspects, saying that doing so may interfere with the investigation.

Officers from the elite Metropolitan Detail made the arrests Thursday night near the intersection of Nordhoff Street and Tampa Avenue. They were assigned to the Valley this week to help catch the follow-home bandits, police said.

Police had warned residents to be on guard against a group of robbers who follow victims to their houses, brandish handguns and demand money, jewelry and Christmas presents. Police bolstered patrols and plainclothes details.

Capt. Vance Proctor said investigators are contacting victims of the recent follow-home robberies for possible identification of the suspects.

Three more follow-home robberies were reported in the northwest Valley on Thursday night, but were apparently not connected with the four people arrested, police said.

One of the incidents involved a pair of robbers who have been preying on Korean Americans in the northwest Valley, and two others were committed by possible “copycat” robbers, said Lt. Bob Normandy.

In the former incident, one robber sprinted toward a 47-year-old Northridge man as he was unlocking his trunk at his home in the 11600 block of Baird Avenue at 11:05 p.m., Normandy said. When the victim made a break for his garage, a second robber stepped in front of him, put a gun to his head and ordered him to give up his money, Normandy said.

The man replied that he had no money, and the robbers pushed him to the ground, kicked at him, rifled through his pockets, found his wallet and then fled, Normandy said.

In an earlier incident, Peggy Janian, 41, was returning to her home in the 10400 block of Baird Avenue about 8:10 p.m. from the North Hollywood insurance firm where she works. As she parked her car in the driveway, a man approached the driver’s window and told her to hand over her purse and briefcase, said her husband, Eddie Janian, 42. When she refused and said she was going to call her husband, the thief threatened her with a switchblade, then grabbed the purse and briefcase, Eddie Janian said.

In the third incident, a 51-year-old woman who owns a Hollywood clothing business returned to her home in the 17000 block of Jeanine Drive after a night of socializing, Normandy said.

As she removed her bag with the week’s receipts from her trunk, a man punched her in the shoulder, Normandy said. She fell to the ground and curled around the bag, Normandy said.

The thieves tore it from her grasp and fled with about $1,000 in cash.