FORT FAIRFIELD – Two men alleged to be the pair who used a handgun to rob a convenience store early Thursday were stopped and arrested by police in nearby Caribou just 15 minutes after the holdup.

Timothy Frost, 18, of Woodland and Richard Stahursky-Clement, 23, of Caribou were being held Thursday in lieu of $20,000 cash bail on a variety of charges. The two were expected to appear in District Court at Houlton.

Police said the two are believed to be the men who robbed the Irving Mainway convenience store on Main Street at Fort Fairfield shortly after 5 a.m. Thursday. A panic alarm alerted Maine State Police.

The two are charged with armed robbery, burglary and theft of a firearm. They were taken to the Aroostook County Jail later Thursday morning, according to Fort Fairfield Police Chief Joe Bubar.

The pair allegedly took $70 in cash and about eight cartons of cigarettes from the Fort Fairfield store before leaving. The men were armed with a handgun which police believe was stolen from a Caribou home two days before.

According to Bubar, the armed robbery charge came from his department. The two other charges were brought by Caribou police and involve the burglary at a private home where the handgun was taken.

Just before the robbery, an off-duty officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was at the store. When he left, the Canadian officer met Fort Fairfield police Officer Mike Poulin and told Poulin of two suspicious men at the store.

When Poulin arrived, the two had left and a female clerk had been locked in a back room. He aired information about the armed robbery over radio.

Officers Mark Gahagan and Douglas Bell of the Caribou Police Department saw the vehicle the two men were in headed north off the Fort Road.

Bubar said no one was injured in the robbery or the arrest.

Police said Stahursky-Clement is wanted on a warrant from Mansfield, Conn., on failure to appear on a larceny charge.