CUMMING – An alligator is a long way from the swamps where they are often found after it was reportedly spotted in a body of water in a neighborhood near Cumming Tuesday.

The gator was located in a retention pond in the Stonehaven Pointe subdivision off Piney Grove Road, according to Lew Benedict, an Alpharetta resident whose nanny lives in the neighborhood.

Benedict said the woman’s neighbor spotted the gator, one of which appeared to be four or five feet – the other was thought to be its mother by residents.

“She was kind of stunned,” he said of his nanny, Erla, when she described the scene. “I’ve lived in Atlanta my whole life and I’ve never heard of a gator north of three hours south of here.”

There was no indication the gators had harmed anyone or that they posed an immediate risk to residents.

“It kind of makes you think of foul play,” Benedict said, “like someone had them and had released them.”

A resident told the Forsyth County News Thursday that personnel from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources retrieved one three-foot gator earlier in the morning.

Mary Foster, a Stonehaven Pointe resident and former homeowners association member, said she talked to muleiple neighbors Wednesday who saw the gator.

"We've had several issues, fines from the county because of the retention ponds for not maintining them," she said. "I can't tell you how they got there, but they've been there for a while because there's a mom, a dad and a baby."

She said the pond is stagnant, which may be a reason the animals have taken up residence.

"Gators don't do moving water. They like stagnant, swampy water," she said.

This is not the first report of alligators being found in Georgia, with one being spotted in the Chattahoochee River earlier this year.