A seven-hour manhunt for suspects in a foiled burglary at a Dawson County clothing store ended early Tuesday afternoon when three men were arrested after a worker at a small business grew suspicious, authorities said.

The trio of suspects approached the office of a septic tank service, where an employee refused to let them use the phone and instead called police.

John Spink / AJC

Police gather at a command post they set up at Antioch Baptist Church.

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Chad Turkett, who was working at Banks Septic Tank Service on Ga. 9, said he was aware of the manhunt and met the suspects at the door while a co-worker called 911.

The men asked Turkett if they could use a phone and get some water, and he told them that he had neither. One of the men replied, "okay, would a hundred dollars change your mind?" Turkett said.

"He pulled out a wad of money," he said. "I'd say there was a couple of grand there, at least -- it was two or three inches thick."

Turkett again declined, "and (one of the suspects) said 'where's the closest Waffle House or something like that,' and I pointed back up the road and they turned around and walked off." Police arrived minutes later. A fourth suspect had been arrested earlier.

None of the suspects' names were immediately released, but all are men in their late teens or early 20s, police said.

The foiled burglary was the latest in a series around metro Atlanta by so-called "blue jean bandits" stealing brand-name jeans or other clothing. Last week, the trend turned violent when thieves used pepper spray on store employees in two robberies an hour apart in Buckhead and Decatur. Those robbers fled in a stolen van, police said.

In Tuesday's attempted robbery, a private security guard at the North Georgia Premium Outlets in Dawsonville noticed a silver van backed up to the doors of the Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th store about 5:30 a.m. The same store that had been hit a few weeks ago by smash-and-grab burglars who stole several thousand dollars worth of blue jeans, Dawson sheriff's Sgt. Tony Wooten said.

He said the suspects apparently saw the guard and left, then were pursued by two Dawson Sheriff's deputies into Forsyth County. Those deputies used a "stop stick" -- strips with small spikes designed to puncture tires -- to force the van off the road.

After crashing the van, which had been reported stolen earlier Tuesday in Atlanta, the suspects ran on foot, sparking a manhunt by deputies on the ground and in the air, as well as k-9 units.

Wooten said the suspects never entered the Saks Fifth Avenue store before driving off. He said the store was targeted about three weeks ago by burglars who also backed a van up to the front door before making off with blue jeans valued "in the twenties of thousands" of dollars.

Some arrests have been made in similar burglaries in metro Atlanta but authorities say different groups of bandits have carried out the crimes.

-- Staff writer Paul Donsky contributed to this report.