SAN JOSE -- While it's not unusual for a surveillance videotape to aid in the arrest of a suspect, San Jose police say it was the calm demeanor of a clerk in images from an armed robbery of a lingerie store that led to the arrest of three members of the so-called "Shotgun Bandits" gang.

Sgt. Michael Montonye said the more he watched the tape of the robbery of Cupid's Corner, the more the questions ran through his mind. Why was the female clerk so calm when she was starring down the barrel of a sawed off shotgun?

Further investigation showed she had a boyfriend -- Michael Washington -- who was an ex-convict who seemed to closely fit the description of one of the robbers. So police decided to stake out her home.

On April 17 the gang pulled off their alleged seventh robbery -- this one at a Subway sandwich shop.

Minutes after the robbery, two of the suspects -- Washington and 26-year-old Gabriel Navarro -- pulled up in the driveway where Tovar and Washington lived. Police watching the home quickly rushed in and arrested the pair.

Police searched the vehicle and found wads of stolen money. Navarro allegedly told them: "The shotgun isn't in my vehicle. I don't know where it is, but it isn't in my truck. My prints aren't in it."

The officers hadn't asked him about the shotgun, police told the San Jose Mercury News.

During a search of the home, police found in plain view on a bed a hold-up costume seen several times in the surveillance tapes of the robberies: a hoodie and a black Oakland Raiders beanie with eye holes cut out.

Police say the suspects were believed to have committed a series of armed robberies in a section of southwest San Jose and one in Campbell. In the robberies, the bandits have burst into stores and grabbed cash from the registers, with one of the robbers wielding a sawed-off shotgun.