The night shift of the police patrol in Lohja, southwest Finland, encountered an unusual vagrant early Saturday: a runaway donkey.
"We met a donkey last night in Lohja, but not three wise men," the Western Uusimaa police department tweeted on Saturday morning.
The police patrol found the donkey in the early morning hours near the Lohja Citymarket grocery store, said senior constable Anni Broman from the Western Uusimaa police. Lohja is about 60km west of Helsinki.
Broman said that the police patrol found the donkey themselves. There had been no observations or calls to the emergency centre.
The donkey had set off from Vivamo, a Lutheran retreat centre, but details of her night-time trip remained a mystery.
"The owners didn't know that she had wandered off. It is unclear how long the animal was out on her own," said Broman.
The donkey didn't make a very long pilgrimage in the cold snowy weather, as the Lohja store is only about a kilometre from the Vivamo centre.
Final holiday performances this weekend
The donkey was returned safe and sound to Vivamo, where she appeared as part of an annual living Christmas show. Judit played a starring role in two performances on Saturday, with the final show of the season scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
"Judit the donkey made it safely back to the stable from her overnight adventure, thanks to Western Uusimaa police!" Vivamo reported on its Instagram account on Saturday afternoon.
"Three wise men were found too! Thanks also to Citymarket for the shipment of carrots! Our star did well in the first performance of the day despite the pressure brought by the sudden publicity," it added.
Last week the Finnish Meteorological Institute reported that Lohja was the snowiest place in Finland, with an accumulation of 47cm – and more has fallen since.
According to its website, Vivamo Bible Village is an outdoor village theatre offering plays based on the Old and New Testaments during the Christmas, Easter and summer seasons. Since its founding in 2004, well over 100,000 people have seen the performances. Vivamo is owned by Kansan Raamattuseura (Logos Ministries of Finland), established in 1945 as part of the state-supported Evangelical Lutheran Church.