A migrant wanted by police attempted to avoid being caught by disguising himself as one of the Three Wise Men in a nativity display.
The 38-year-old, from Ghana, was on the run from authorities when he chose the festive scene in the small Italian town of Galatone in the southern region of Puglia as his hiding spot.
The man had been sentenced to nine months and 15 days in Bologna and was evading police following a conviction for assault and resisting arrest, The Telegraph reports.
His disguise was however blown when the town's mayor, Flavio Filoni, walked past and discovered "out the corner of my eye" part of the nativity display moving.
The migrant was arrested and remanded in custody in a prison in the nearby city of Lecce, according to the newspaper.
In a post to Facebook, Mr Filoni thanked the "prompt intervention" of police to catch the fugitive.
"As I stood before the Nativity scene, lovingly crafted by our Pro Loco, I noticed a presence I had initially mistaken for part of the scene. A detail that seemed innocuous, but which proved decisive," he wrote.
"Thanks to the prompt intervention of our Local Police, the State Police, and the Carabinieri, it was possible to track down and identify a person who had been a fugitive and wanted.
The man was discovered within the nativity scene
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"This outcome confirms, once again, how essential it is to place complete trust in the daily work of those who guarantee safety and legality.
"Sincere thanks to all the women and men who monitor our territory with skill, care, and dedication."
The incident comes as Italy presses on with tougher migration policies under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
She last month vowed to relaunch a plan to detain migrants in Albania, a flagship initiative of her conservative government that has been blocked by judges.
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Italy is pressing on with tougher migration policies under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
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Italy and Albania signed a protocol in 2023 to take migrants caught at sea to Albania and screen their asylum requests there, in the first such deal between a European Union country and one from outside the bloc.
The scheme stalled almost immediately, after Italian courts ordered migrants to be returned to Italy, citing issues with EU law.
The EU's top court in August also ruled against the Rome government in another blow to the plan, but Ms Meloni is confident the Albanian camps will be operational from mid-2026 when new EU rules on immigration and asylum are due to come into force.
"Many have worked to slow it down or block it, but we are determined to move forward because this mechanism has the capacity to change the entire (migration) paradigm," the Italian Prime Minister said.
Italy hoped the Albanian camps would process and largely reject the requests of some 36,000 male asylum seekers per year, but they have been largely empty since opening in October 2024.
Since the migrants due to be taken to Albania are supposed to come from a government-drafted list of safe countries, the expectation was that most of their asylum requests would be rejected.
Ms Meloni sees the entire scheme as a disincentive for migrants seeking to enter Italy via the Mediterranean.