A mountain lion in Upper Darby? Maybe just a big dog

Anyone see a lion in Upper Darby?

On Tuesday, police received two anonymous calls reporting a mountain lion or bobcat may have been sighted entering the woods near Township Line Road and State Road, police said.

Animal Control was dispatched to the area, but no supersize feline was found, Police Superintendent Michael J. Chitwood said.

There were reports of an earlier dogfight involving a "large, burly-looking dog" that ran off, Chitwood said. "That is what we believe it was."

That, however, did not stop the media circus.

Every news outlet arrived on the scene, including some in helicopters.

"I haven't had homicides with this much attention," Chitwood said.

It was not the first report of a lion in the area.

In September, two women admitted to police they had burglarized 29 homes but said they had passed up one house where they encountered a lion.

In separate interviews, Harley Rose Gifford and Britney Singleton, both 19 and from the 7100 block of Marshall Road, said "it was a lion," police said.

Were the two lying?

Police took the sighting seriously and went to the home where the alleged lion may have been kept but found nothing, Chitwood said.