By Tim Binnall
A Pennsylvania man claims that a recent fishing trip took a wondrous turn when he spotted an alligator swimming in a local lake. The odd sighting reportedly occurred yesterday as Nathan Miller was casting off a bridge at William Kain Park in the community of York. During the excursion, his girlfriend alerted him to something weird in the water and, when he looked at what had drawn her attention, the witness was astounded to see what appeared to be an alligator in the lake. "It had hard, black, armored skin," he told a local TV station, "like a real gator, not a toy. I could see the segmentation between the head and body, and we watched it dive and bob up as it swam."
Conceding that he struggled to comprehend what he had just seen, since alligators do not live in Pennsylvania, Miller insisted that is what he observed in the water. Theorizing that the creature had been left in the lake by someone who presumably once had it as a pet, the bewildered fisherman attempted to film the out-of-place animal with his cell phone, but "it was far out when I began recording." That said, he did capture some footage of the alleged alligator, which he promptly posted to Facebook. As one might imagine, the difficult-to-discern video sparked considerable debate and some skeptical responses from people who argued that he probably saw something more prosaic like a muskrat or beaver.
Undeterred by the doubters, Miller mused that "I've fished that lake my entire life and I'm an avid trout fisherman. I've had my fair share of run-ins with beavers. This was not that." The witness claims that he reported the unfathomable sighting to a park ranger, who took down the information. When contacted about the possible alligator sighting at the park, an official with the department that oversees the lake indicated that they were aware of the incident, but "we don't have any other confirmation, as far as if it's really true. We haven't physically seen it ourselves." What do you think of Miller's wild tale? Weigh in with your thoughts at the C2C Facebook page.