More Alligator Sightings Reported

Washington PA Observer-Reporter
9 April 2015

Was that a fish, a log or something more sinister? Six additional people called Southwest Regional Police on Thursday to report that they did, by golly, spot an alligator in the Monongahela River.

Police Chief John Hartman said the reports were “pretty definitive,” but all of the sightings had occurred two to three weeks ago. Hartman said he believes people second-guessed what they saw until they heard two others reported their sightings Tuesday.

“They didn’t want to come forward because they thought people would ridicule them,” he said.

He said the sightings extended from Belle Vernon to Allenport and Brownsville.

Police and the U.S. Coast Guard have been investigating the sightings since Wednesday after two people reported seeing the alligator in Belle Vernon waters.

One of the witnesses, a fisherman, shined a spotlight on the creature and claimed he saw its head and tail near the ramp off Water Street shortly before midnight Tuesday. A second witness said he was certain that he saw an alligator six to seven feet long in the river earlier the same day.

Hartman said the issue is unusual, but police are handling it like anything else and fielding calls of sightings.

“We’ve asked people to notify us if they’ve seen anything suspicious in the river,” Hartman said.

Anyone who spots the creature is asked to call police at 724-929-8484.