LAKEWOOD — In an ordeal more akin to a screwball Hollywood caper than the police blotter, authorities say a group of masked gunmen abducted a 27-year-old man from an adult novelty shop in Lakewood last week and held him hostage for five days while they haggled with his family over a payoff.

At one point, a $200,000 ransom — less than half the amount the kidnappers originally demanded — was stashed in a black trash bag along Interstate 70 east of Denver, investigators said Wednesday, but the kidnappers couldn’t find it.

Frustrated, investigators say, the suspects eventually settled on retrieving the money outside the victim’s family’s ranch in Commerce City, releasing the man mostly unscathed and escaping with the money.

In the end, authorities followed the men and arrested three suspects. They are searching for a fourth man said to be armed and dangerous and to have ties to other states and Mexico. The kidnapping, which spanned the Denver area, prompted the response of more than 100 local and federal law enforcement officers, including the FBI.

While investigators say they are still probing what motivated the kidnapping, officials said it seemed to stem from a family feud over the horse-breeding industry. Lakewood police say that is a “universal theme” with those involved, but they did not elaborate.

“It’s certainly unusual in my experience,” 1st Judicial District Attorney Peter Weir said at a news conference Wednesday. “I can’t recall a similar situation in the last several years, at least during my tenure.”

Acting Special Agent in Charge of Denver division. pic.twitter.com/3vuhewF4o9 — Jesse Aaron Paul ☀ (@JesseAPaul) September 7, 2016

Arrest documents for the suspects taken into custody show the kidnapping happened Aug. 30 at an adult shop in the 6400 block of West Alameda Avenue. There, the victim was approached by three or four heavily armed men — at least one of whom had an assault rifle — who were dressed in black and wearing masks.

Authorities say the victim was beaten and that one of the suspects fired a shot as they forced him into a car and drove off.

The kidnappers initially demanded $500,000 from the man’s family for his return, records show, but dropped the amount they were seeking during a series of phone calls with his father until they reached $200,000.

The victim told investigators a hood was placed over his head during the abduction and that he was moved to several locations by his kidnappers. The man also said he overheard one of his abductors talk about coming to Colorado from California “to do this job.”

Three days after the kidnapping, on Friday, FBI agents dropped the $200,000 ransom from the family in a trash bag on the side of an Interstate 70 exit near Bennett. The kidnappers, however, apparently were unable to find it, according to court documents, and they left frustrated.

The abductors then ordered the money to be placed outside the Commerce City ranch of the victim’s family, which sits just north of Denver International Airport. The court documents show an FBI agent did so early Saturday, at which point the money was retrieved by the suspects and the abducted man was released.

While the victim was being held captive and after his release, authorities used cellphone records, surveillance and DNA from evidence found at the initial abduction site in their efforts to track down those responsible, court records show. The kidnapping involved several jurisdictions across the metro area, according to authorities, including Fort Lupton, Brighton and parts of Weld County.

The three men arrested are 22-year-old Raymundo Maldonado-Salgado, Jonatan Maldonado-Salgado and Hernando Aguilar-Banuelos. The men face, among other charges, an allegation of first-degree kidnapping, which carries a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

Weapons — including an AK-47 assault rifle, two drum magazines and a grenade — were seized by authorities.

The three men in custody have appeared before a judge for their first hearing. They are all being held without bail at the Jefferson County jail and are due in court next week.

“The U.S. attorney’s office has been actively involved in this investigation since the beginning of this crime and is assessing federal charges at this time,” Colorado’s acting U.S. attorney, Bob Troyer, said in a statement.

A warrant for Marco Cota-Tamaura, the fourth man suspected in the case, has been issued, authorities say. He is considered armed and dangerous and has ties to Texas, Nevada and Mexico.

The FBI describes Cota-Tamaura as a Latino man about 5-foot-8 and 210 pounds with brown hair and eyes and tattoos on the inside of both forearms.

FBI's Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force looking for suspected kidnapper. Reward $5,000! Tips 720.913.7867 pic.twitter.com/7PCTB6mjNj — FBI Denver (@FBIDenver) September 7, 2016

In an interview, Maldonado-Salgado told investigators that the kidnapping stemmed from a major family conflict surrounding the horse industry and that the kidnapping plan might have been in place for as long as four years. He allegedly said a prior attempt a week earlier to kidnap one of the victim’s brothers in Denver had failed.

Officials said they could not say whether the suspects had links to cartels and declined to discuss if any of the men were from Mexico. Some of the ransom money has been found, investigators said, but authorities did not say how much.

“This was a major investigation with hundreds of law enforcement officers involved,” said Dan McCasky, interim chief of the Lakewood Police Department. “We had detectives out immediately because we were really fearful for this man’s life.”

Weir said the efforts to track down those responsible for the kidnapping were intense.

“It was a 24/7 investigation,” he said. “We could not have arrived at a successful conclusion but for the involvement of all the agencies. There were agents, deputies and law enforcement officers involved at the inception.”