5 Invade Home, Rob Family of Cash, Jewelry : Crime: Occupants of Costa Mesa residence are beaten and tied up by masked gunmen. It is the second time in four years that the victims are robbed at gunpoint in their house.

As workers installed new locks on the large wooden doors of her family’s home Wednesday, an exhausted Julie Nguyen calmly recalled details of the brutal home invasion that occurred the night before and left her family terrorized.

“They put guns in our mouths and at our heads and hit us and kicked us,” she said. “They said they were going to shoot us if we didn’t listen.”

Five masked men with semiautomatic handguns burst into the Oriole Drive home about 6 p.m. Tuesday, beat up family members and tied them up with telephone cords before robbing them of $20,000 in cash and jewelry, police said.

This was the second time in four years that the family, who owns a jewelry store in Westminster, has been robbed in its home at gunpoint, Nguyen said.

“It was the same thing all over again,” she said as she stood behind a white wrought-iron security gate that apparently was unlocked when the robbers entered.

“They took everything,” Nguyen said. “I think they knew we had a jewelry store. They wanted to take my parents to the store and have them open the safe, but my sister was able to talk them out of it.”

Nguyen, a 25-year-old Cal State Fullerton student, said the robbery was already in progress when she arrived home from her shift at the jewelry store Tuesday night. She said her grandparents, parents and sister were tied up in their bedrooms. Two nieces, ages 3 and 5, were home during the robbery but were not tied up or injured.

“I came upstairs and (the robbers) came out of the rooms and surprised me,” she said. “They pushed me down on the carpet, hit me on the back of the head with a gun and asked me questions. They took my jewelry and all the money from my purse.”

Police described the robbery as a typical “home invasion” crime, in which Asian gangs target Asian families, believing that cash, gold and jewelry may be kept at residences. The invaders force their way in, tie up family members and sometimes assault them.

In Tuesday’s attack, the assailants were all described as Vietnamese, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighing 130 pounds, and between 18 and 25 years old, police said. All were wearing jeans and T-shirts, police said. They remain at large.

The assailants had somehow obtained a key to the house and were able to let themselves in, Nguyen said.

Her family has lived in the home for eight years and has no intention of moving, she said. But Nguyen said they plan to install a sophisticated security system.

The family is considering relocating the jewelry store that it has owned for 13 years but plan to stay in business, Nguyen said.

“We have been working every day of the year for many years and we’re going to keep working,” she said. “We’re just going to be more careful.”