Residents in Nottingham were left baffled when a reindeer escaped from a Christmas event at a Tesco car park and dashed through the streets.
Bjorn, aged 5, made his bid for freedom after he was startled by a car horn outside the store in Carlton Hill on Sunday.
After galloping past rows of houses, he was eventually found in a nearby garden and safely returned to Santa's sleigh.
Warren Porter, 23, got a photo of Bjorn as he raced down the road. "It was one of the weirdest unexpected sights I will ever witness," he told the Press Association.
"I was driving down Carlton Hill and saw what I thought was a massive dog running up the pavement. I locked my doors and thought, 'You're not getting in here, I've got carrots in my boot.'
"As it ran past, a woman dressed in festive gear was chasing up the road with a rope. You couldn't create a story like that."
Bjorn had been standing beside Santa's sleigh with his reindeer pal Thor, aged 7, when he made a run for it.
Sam Manning from The Animal Company, which organised the event, told the Nottingham Post: "We were coming down the ramp from the truck and he slipped the rope and managed to get away.
"They are flight animals by nature. Once they are in the pen they are fine but because he got free he ran away. We managed to find him safely in the garden and get him back in the truck."