Mountain Lion Reported in Wheaton
Money Magazine recently called Wheaton one of the best cities in Illinois. Apparently, a large cat has a subscription--and wants to check things out.
The Wheaton Police Department is warning residents to keep their guard up after a local resident called in a sighting--from his backyard.
Wheaton Police showed up to investigate, but were unable to locate the wandering predator.
From UPI:
The resident, Matt Marron, said he was working in his yard when he spotted the big cat.
"Just though, 'Oh my gosh. How can that be a cat when it's that big? And it's in my backyard,'" Marron told WGN-TV. Marron said police collected a fur sample for testing, but he is confident that the animal was a mountain lion.
"It couldn't have been a domesticated cat. It wasn't a 'kitty.' I don't know. I don't have a lot of explanations for it," he said.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says that while Illinois doesn't have groups of breeding mountain lions/cougars, we do get ones that wander in from our neighboring states.
If you recall, it wasn't that long ago that a big cat made things a little crazy in Chicago:
((Warning: video is graphic, and may be disturbing to some viewers))