The mystery of the 'Castleford Croc' has been solved after a grandad explained that the beast responsible for scaring his neighbour is in fact a toy.
Sunday's story of the Yorkshire crocodile was the just the latest in several reported sightings of the menacing creature, according to Yorkshire Live.
On returning home from a night shift, Sarah Jayne Ellis took a picture of the massive reptile in a garden close to Savile Road, nearby the River Aire.
She stated at the time that it "looked real".
She said: "I was shutting the blinds in the bedroom when I saw it on the grass. I looked a couple of hours later and it was gone."
But the sighting was especially surprising for Sarah's neighbour Nigel Holroyd, reports The Sun, who was left stunned when he saw his back garden plastered across the news.
Nigel, who works as a bricklayer, has now confirmed there are no crocodiles roaming across Castleford and the crocodile was in fact a plastic toy.
He told Metro : "I left it in the grass to scare off my neighbour’s cat from my garden, but I ended up scaring her."
The crocodile toy was bought in Florida for his son 21 years ago and has now been passed onto his grandson Ronnie.
The 58-year-old confessed his family had been in "hysterics" at the attention around the Castleford Croc.
Nigel, who hasn’t spoken to Sarah since the story went viral, the crocodile has now been put into the shed.
He joked: “When I came home from work I picked it up and put it back in the shed.
"She probably thought it must have been real when it disappeared."
