Repeat Business : Crime: A man suspected of robbing restaurants two to three times each is recognized from an earlier holdup and captured.

Police said Benjamin DeCuzzi’s chief problem as an armed robber was his habit of returning to the scene of the crime. Over and over.

The 39-year-old Tarzana man was charged Tuesday with robbing two restaurants a total of five times in the last month. He also is suspected of robbing a third restaurant three times and a linen supplies store another three times. He was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

He was captured Saturday at a Baker’s Square restaurant in Tarzana after manager David Larson recognized DeCuzzi as the man who had robbed him just a week earlier, police said. Larson whispered instructions to a waitress to call police before DeCuzzi even got up to the cash register and pulled out his gun.

“It surprised the heck out of me to see him coming back in here,” Larson said. “I thought this guy must be stupid or something.”

But Larson, 30, said his shock turned to anger when the same gun was pointed at him by the same man again. After the robber put the gun in his pocket and left the Ventura Boulevard restaurant, Larson signaled to security guard Marcello Aller, 27, for help and together they tackled the man in the parking lot.

They sat on him until police arrived a few moments later.

“It’s just annoying to have a gun pointed at you,” Larson said.

Police said DeCuzzi’s method of going back to the same till--he is accused of robbing a Subway sandwich shop as soon as two days after he robbed it the first time--is unusual.

“I tell victims not to worry, that maybe one out of a thousand times does a robber return,” Detective Robert Johansen said. “Then this guy comes along.”

Johansen noted that DeCuzzi’s habit of returning to the scene of the crime may have at least saved him some time during the robberies. During his last outing, DeCuzzi allegedly walked up to Larson with a gun and simply said, “You know what I want.”