Some Plymouth families living on Mooney Lake in the city's southwest corner are gingerly eyeing their familiar lake with a different view Friday.

State conservation officers have been scouring the small lake circled by homes in recent days looking for an alligator after a trio of unconfirmed sightings while neighbors watched warily.

State Department of Natural Resources authorities say the sightings could be a hoax, but a reptile expert is on call to come and capture and relocate the animal on demand.

One neighborhood girl told a Twin Cities radio station that she had been swimming in the lake just days ago, and how an alligator may have been nearby is hard to believe. "If I saw an alligator, I would say, 'Mom, there's an alligator!'," she said.

Alligators are freshwater creatures, and there is a chance that it could have started as a pet as a youngster, and abandoned in the lake.

But the sightings could be a mistake or hoax.

Earlier this month, some swimmers in an abandoned quarry used as a swimming hole in Winona reported seeing a body, but after two days of exhaustive searching in the shallow, clear swimming hole authorities didn't find one.

Also, over the weekend in Duluth, a man was bitten by his pet cobra after ordering eggs for the poisonous, exotic snake and raising them in his home.