YORK, Pa. — Nathan Miller has fished the waters of Lake Redman in York County for most of his life, and has had some surprising encounters over the years.
But on Monday, while fishing off a bridge near William Kain Park, the Red Lion native is convinced he saw something he's never seen in local waters before:
An alligator.
"It had hard, black, armored skin," Miller told FOX43 Tuesday in a conversation on Facebook Messenger. "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."
Miller said he was fishing at the park when his girlfriend spotted the animal and pointed it out to him.
"I was shocked," he said. "I had to reconcile that I live in PA and there aren't gators (here), but sure enough, it was a gator. I figure someone must have dumped it (in the lake)."
Miller said he grabbed his phone and began recording video of the animal as it swam off.
"It moved so quickly (that) unfortunately it was far out when I began recording," he said.
Miller shared the video on his Facebook page with an account of what he saw. The video shows an animal swimming in the distance, but it's too far to say definitively what it is.
Comments under the video run from surprise to humor to skepticism. Some commenters agree it's a gator. Others think Miller saw a beaver or a muskrat, or that he was fooled by a toy.
Miller claims he knows what he saw.
"I've fished that lake my entire life and I'm and avid trout fisherman," he said. "I've had my fair share of run-ins with beavers. This was not that."
Miller said he found a park ranger and told him what he'd seen. He said the ranger told him would pass the information along.
"(The ranger) just seem to continue about his day," Miller said. "But that's a highly trafficked area."
FOX43 reached out to the park rangers, who directed us to York County Parks and Recreation Assistant Director, Teddy Fisher.
He said, "We had one report last night, someone that called in and said that they saw one swimming in the lake, but that's all that we really have. We don't have any other confirmation, as far as if it's really true. We haven't physically seen it ourselves. It's always good in nature to be vigilant of your surroundings, but we don't have anything that's concrete saying that there's anything out there right now."
FOX43 also spoke to officials with the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
The Game Commission said it was just learning of the alleged sighting and had no immediate comment, while the Fish and Boat Commission said the agency had no official comment.
York County Parks posted a statement on Facebook acknowledging the potential sighting.
"We are monitoring the situation and spent some time on the lake today looking for it. As of now, we do not have photos or videos confirming or denying that it's [an] alligator," officials with York County Parks wrote.
The public has been asked to be on the lookout and, if an alligator is spotted, to keep their distance and call the parks office at 717-840-7440 to report it to a park ranger or staff member.