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Toddler steals baby Jesus in hilarious Nativity play mishap

1:36
Toddler steals baby Jesus in adorable Nativity pageant mishap
ABCNews.com
ByGENEVIEVE SHAW BROWN
December 14, 2017, 4:37 PM

— -- A 2-year-old girl who is "obsessed" with baby Jesus just couldn't get through her church Nativity pageant without stealing him from the manger.

As for the 3-year-old playing Mary? Well, she wasn't having it.

In a hilarious and adorable video that was viewed on Facebook more than 5 million times and shared with ABC News, the mishap plays out as the audience roars with laughter.

Tana Benson, the mother of the sheep who started the onstage drama, said her daughter Teegan is a "spunky, strong-willed sweetheart."

The Dandridge, Tennessee, mom told ABC News she was sitting with the mother of Collia Weems, the little girl playing Mary in the show. "We were crying laughing," she told ABC News.

When the women asked little Collia what happened on stage at First Baptist White Pine Church, she told them: "Teegan jacked the baby Jesus, I had to jack him back. I didn't push her."

Benson described the little girls as good friends who "love each other." She described Collia as very bright and a very good girl. "She's a stickler for the rules," Benson said. "It was so hilarious because both girls were being true to their nature and just being themselves."

As for Teegan, her mom said perhaps she would have put the baby Jesus down, but "once she heard the crowd laughing, the more they laughed the more she strut her stuff."

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