A wild turkey interfered with power lines and left more than 4,000 customers in Sacramento, California, in the dark on Christmas Eve (Picture: Getty Images)

It was the turkey who stole Christmas.

A wild turkey trotted on power lines in Sacramento, California, on Christmas Eve, and left more than 4,000 customers in the dark.

‘There was a turkey in the line that crews are working to repair quickly and safely,’ a spokesperson for the municipal utility district told The Sacramento Bee.

Around 12.15pm on Sunday, 4,248 customers in the Greenhaven and Little Pocket neighborhoods were without electricity, according to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

Wild turkeys have grown in population across California and caused problems in the Sacramento area (Picture: Getty Images)

Crews quickly went to investigate the incident and said power would be routed to another circuit and that most customers in the area would have power back by 1.20pm.

‘Now customers can search an outage by address and get status updates through the restoration process,’ said officials with the district and directed customers to its outage page that was recently updated.

More than 300 customers called to report the outage, according to the page.

Shortly after 3.45pm, the South Land Park Neighborhood Association dedicated to protecting and improving life for 14,000 residents wrote on X (formerly Twitter): ‘The power is out in parts of South Land Park. It’s been off and on and off again. Fingers crossed this doesn’t ruin holiday meals and festivities!’

A wild turkey crossed power lines in the Sacramento area and customers were without electricity for about an hour (Picture: Getty Images)

It was not immediately known what became of the turkey that almost stole Christmas Eve.

Almost every part of California has a growing wild turkey population and they have caused problems in the Sacramento area over the years, the newspaper reported earlier this year. The turkeys have broken into businesses and residences and terrorized mail carriers and Amazon delivery drivers.

The wild turkey was not the only animal that has disturbed the holidays in the US this year.

In Hutto, Texas, the police department four days before Christmas warned of cottontail bunnies that bite through holiday light decorations.

‘Every year around the holidays these cute and fuzzy bunnies go on rampant crime sprees! They commit seemingly random acts of vandalism while besmirching the reputation of our local youth,’ wrote the Hutton Police Department on Facebook.

‘They seem to take great offense at having to negotiate the seasonal obstacles in their usual haunts.

‘All of that to say if your light strands look like they have been cut clean through, the primary suspect is and generally will look a lot more like Bugs Bunny than your neighborhood kids.’

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A wild turkey caused more than 4,000 customers in the Sacramento area of California to be without electricity on Christmas Eve.