Police Arrest 2 Suspects Shortly After Home Robbery : Crime: Resident of a gated Irvine community, her 2-year-old child and her housekeeper are tied up by a gunman who then flees with jewelry from bedroom safe.

Two San Clemente men suspected of tying up two women and a child in a Turtle Rock Summit home Tuesday were arrested less than half an hour later.

Irvine police said Brian D. Finnan, 24, and Jeremy B. Keenan, 23, were being held at Orange County Jail on suspicion of armed robbery.

A 30-year-old woman whose name has not been released told police that a man forced his way into her house on Pemberly just before 11 a.m. He forced her, her 2-year-old son and her housekeeper into the upstairs master bedroom.

Pointing a chrome, 9-millimeter handgun at her head, “he asked her for cash,” said Lt. Sam Allevato. “She stated she didn’t have any. Then he asked her if she had a safe. . . . She was afraid. You can imagine, with your 2 1/2-year-old child in the house. She was obviously going to cooperate. He said, ‘Don’t do anything foolish.’ ”

The man kept looking at his watch, Allevato said, telling the woman she had 10 minutes to comply with his demands, leading police to believe that he had been dropped off by an accomplice who would be returning to pick him up.

After the woman opened a bedroom floor safe and gave the man jewelry, Allevato said, both women and the child were tied with shoe laces, and the man fled.

As soon as she heard the front door close, the woman ran down the stairs and watched the man drive away in a black Toyota pickup, police said. With her wrists tied in front of her, she dialed 911.

Less than half an hour later, Allevato said, deputies spotted a black Toyota pickup on Interstate 5 and pulled it over at the Via Estrella exit. Finnan and Keenan were arrested without incident, and police said they seized two handguns and jewelry taken from the victim’s safe.

“I think they’re amateurs,” Allevato said of the men, both of whom identified themselves as carpenters. “I’m not sure if they were working nearby. . . . There’s a lot of construction of new houses in the neighborhood.” The custom residences are in the $700,000-$800,000 range.

No one was injured in the robbery. News of the event shocked neighbors.

“We specifically chose Irvine and a gated community because we were scared to death of the L.A. area,” said a neighbor who moved last year from Texas and who asked not to be identified. “That just really upsets me.”