Youth Pastor in Pajamas Foils Christmas Day Robbery: 'I Hope You Don't Have a Gun, I Hope You Don't Have a Gun

Jim Stevens got some extra praying in on Christmas Day.

"When he walked out and he was walking towards me, I just kept saying in my head, 'I hope you don't have a gun, I hope you don't have a gun.'"

That's what Stevens told the local news station KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs on Tuesday about an attempted robbery that he thwarted. Stevens, a youth pastor for Central Church of the Nazarene, got a call from neighbors who saw three people breaking into a nearby home that happened to belong to the church's children's pastor who wasn't around at the time. Stevens and his family were opening presents, so Stevens trotted out to see what was going on -- in his pajamas. That's when he saw one of the crooks.

"He was more surprised than I was," Stevens explained.  "I just kept hoping he didn't have a gun."

Stevens said he does have a gun, but didn't bring it thinking "it was just kids." He was wrong. He called police and then told the crook -- who had an armful of loot -- to stop.

"He rushed me, threw all of the stuff at me, hit me in the face and took off running," he recalled.  "It wasn't a full punch, but he knocked me pretty good."

Stevens explains where the robber hit him.

KRDO explains what happened next:

Stevens said he detained a woman who was sitting in the car with the engine running by taking the keys.  He said he also restrained a second woman coming out of the home."

"She said it was her house and that she was pregnant," said Stevens.  "I held her arms behind her back and waited for police to come."

Police said the man remained at large, and credited the involvement of watchful neighbors.

One of the burglars Stevens apprehended.

"It could have ended in a lot of different ways," Stevens said.  "God was definitely watching over us today and protecting us."