INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- A man who robbed a house and ran near an Independence convent was chased from the building by one of the nuns Thursday morning, police said.

Police said the man took a shotgun and other items form a house and then ran near the Sisters of St. Francis convent. Sisters Connie and Catarina said they saw a suspicious man walking in a bean field behind the convent.

At first the sisters thought he may have been a hunter, which they said is illegal. The two nuns said they approached the man and saw that he had a shotgun in one hand, boxing gloves and other items in the other hand. They said when they began to question the man, he ran into a nearby wooded area.

Sister Catarina chased the man when he started to run until police arrived.

Police said they were nearby responding to a house burglary and eventually chased the 17-year-old suspect into the woods and caught him behind a barn at 720 Dickinson Road.

Police said the the man ran into the woods northeast of Dickinson Road and Kentucky Avenue, but was caught behind a barn at 720 Dickinson Road.

"Knowing Sister Catarina, I thought she might have caught him and tackled him," Sister Connie said.

"I reacted because that was our property," Sister Catarina said. "We want to know who's coming here, why he is here."