According to a report by CBS News, the Westrick family from Atlanta, Georgia are enjoying a vacation in Rome. Reportedly they are visiting the godparent of their three-year-old daughter, Estella Westrick. According to her father, Scott, Estella has a mind of her own and “does what she wants.” Doing what she wants this time caused video footage of the incident to go viral and made the Pope laugh out loud.

Atlanta girl seizes the moment at the Vatican

Apparently Estella’s mother, Alexis, stayed back in the hotel that day. During a visit to the Vatican on Wednesday, Scott, Estella and her godfather, Mountain Butorac, reportedly had to queue for some hours to catch the pope after his weekly audience.

As soon as Pope Francis saw the cute little girl, a Vatican aide lifted her up to meet the pope. He then leaned in to give her a kiss, never expecting what was to happen next. As she got close enough, Estella reached out and grabbed at his skullcap (which is reportedly known in Italian as a “zucchetto”).

The whole thing happened so fast, Scott was unable to do anything to stop the child. However, the whole thing did get captured on video and the Pope was apparently not in the least be fazed by the incident, in fact he found it very funny. You can see the video footage below.

Greg Burke of the Holy See press office told CBS that the pope loves these unexpected moments.

While saying the pope is obviously in no way a regular guy, Burke said he likes to deal with the public as if he were.

CBS News quotes Estella’s mother as saying that as soon as the little girl walked in the door at the hotel, she told her she had managed to see the pope and that she “got his hat.” Butorac told CNN that before she met the Pope, Estella was a little nervous.

However as soon as she got nearer, she couldn’t resist trying to steal his hat. Butorac said the whole incident was hilarious and everyone around them was laughing, including the pope. He went on to say this was Estella’s first day in Rome, so anything can happen tomorrow.

It seems Estella didn’t plan on taking the pope’s hat

CBS news reporter Seth Doane was in Rome and managed to interview the little girl. He asked Estella to tell him about how she took the pope’s hat and whether she enjoyed doing it. Estella said it was good and when Doane asked her if it surprised her that she did it, she said “Yeah,” and when asked why she did it, she simply said she didn’t know, but she thought it was funny.
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