4 Teen-Agers Held in Robbery Spree : Crime: Police arrest armed youths in a car after a pizza parlor holdup, other robberies spanning 2 weeks.

Four teen-agers were in custody Wednesday in connection with a robbery spree during which armed bandits stole money and cash registers from fast-food restaurants, police said.

The male youths, ranging in age from 13 to 18, were arrested Tuesday night after the robbery of a Westminster Avenue pizza parlor. An unidentified female employee was forced to the ground by a bandit with a sawed-off shotgun during the robbery, police said.

The robbers drove off with the restaurant’s cash register and $300 cash inside it, but not before the uninjured employee caught a glimpse of their getaway car, Lt. John Woods said.

Westminster Police Officer Roger Keyes spotted the car about 10 minutes later near Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue and pulled it over a few blocks away on Clinton Street.

As the car was pulling over, Keyes heard a shotgun blast from inside the car, police said. Keyes called for backup police officers and arrested four teen-age suspects without incident, Woods said.

For unknown reasons, one of the suspects had fired a shotgun inside the car, police said. No one was injured.

Arrested were Hung Manh Le, 18, of Westminster, a 15-year-old from Santa Ana, a 15-year-old from Buena Park and a 13-year-old from Garden Grove.

Le was being held at Orange County Jail in Santa Ana while the youths, whose names were withheld because of their ages, were taken to Orange County Juvenile Hall in Orange.

A search of the car, which was reported stolen in Garden Grove, yielded a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun, a sawed-off shotgun, the pizza restaurant’s cash register and money. Also found in the car, police said, was a second cash register allegedly taken during a robbery only a few hours before at another fast-food restaurant.

The two 15-year-olds are runaways who left home about two weeks ago, joined up with Le and were stealing cash to pay for hotel rooms as they moved around, Detective Dale Walker said. Their spree netted them about $500, Walker said. The 13-year-old joined them Tuesday, Walker said.

The crime spree began Nov. 15 when Le and the two 15-year-olds allegedly attempted to steal a cash register from Donut Inn on Century Boulevard. That ill-fated attempt ended when employees chased the unarmed males away, Walker said.

Le and the 15-year-olds are also suspects in the Nov. 24 armed robbery of a cash register and $80 from a doughnut store on Harbor Boulevard.

The next day, armed bandits returned to the Donut Inn on Century Boulevard and this time successfully made off with the cash register. On Saturday, robbers stole cash and jewelry from employees at Big Jimmy’s Drive-In on Westminster Avenue, police said. And on Monday, armed bandits struck at Saks Donuts on Harbor Boulevard, stealing the cash register.