A deer smashed its way into a Christmas shop, sniffed the decorations and then became wedged under a chair before police dragged it back outside.
The festive intruder set off alarms at Gabriel’s Christmas and More.
Officers arrived to find the deer sprinting through the aisles, weaving between displays of ornaments and garlands.
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It eventually tried to crawl beneath a chair, became stuck, and was safely grabbed by the legs and pulled towards the front door.
The incident happened in Jonesborough, east of Nashville, Tennessee, US, on Friday (5 Dec).
Jonesborough Police Department shared footage of the chaos on social media, as reported by What’s the Jam.
A spokesperson said: “Reindeer needs to lay off the eggnog.
“Only in Jonesborough would one of Santa’s reindeer come barreling through the front door… clearly three sips too deep into the holiday spirits.
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“He sniffed the ornaments, inspected the garland, side-eyed a nutcracker and galloped around like he was trying to remember where he parked the sleigh.”
Police added that officers “gently escorted our tipsy legend back outside once he decided to wedge himself in the middle of an easy chair”.
Locals were delighted by the bizarre encounter.
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One person wrote: “I absolutely love this – the officers were so gentle with the deer but still found the humour in such a surreal situation.”
Another joked: “Did y’all charge him with resisting?”
A third said: “He’s trying to get to Santa’s North Pole and this looked like the way.”
Shop worker Lisa Melancon added: “Our sweet Christmas store got invaded by a deer.
“It was shocking – nobody thought it was real.
“Every employee thought we were joking.”
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