Cows in live Nativity scene get stage fright, try swimming off North Carolina island

One coastal church’s wish to recreate a “live Nativity” scene turned chaotic in the strangest way, when some of the farm animals escaped and tried swimming off the island.

It happened Saturday, Dec. 3, in Carolina Beach and photos show police waist-deep in the Cape Fear River as they tried pulling cows back to dry land on Sunday. The island is 140 miles southeast of Raleigh.

“When you’re a police officer in a small island community, you may get some unusual calls,” the Carolina Beach Police Department wrote on Facebook.

“Such was the case (Sunday) as officers from the CBPD were dispatched to assist the CB State Park Rangers with rounding up some loose cows! The subjects escaped their pen at Seaside Chapel where they were performing in the live nativity scene.”

It’s not clear why the cows lingered in the river, but the posse assembled by police included park rangers, community members “and a K9 with specialized herding skills.”

The two cows escaped the nativity site around 10:30 p.m. Saturday and stayed on the run nearly 16 hours, reports the Port City Daily. They ended up about nine blocks north, in Carolina Beach State Park, the newspaper reported.

Seaside Chapel’s “Journey to Bethlehem” is described as “an interactive walk-through Nativity complete with live animals” and it attracted more than 200 people on opening night Dec. 3, the church said.

News of the escape has gotten hundreds of reactions on social media, including some who noted it made for “great publicity.” Others couldn’t help but make jokes, after photos showed the cows absurdly standing in the middle of the river.

“The cow definitely got baptized,” Madeline Themann Morton posted.

“It seems weird to have a cow at one of those things (Nativity) anyway .... but this is even weirder,” Meghan Sweeney wrote.

“The live nativity was really good, minus the cows who were recuperating from their night out,” Anita Johnson Dew said.

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