Big Cat on the Loose Sets Detroit Neighborhood on Edge [VIDEO]

Residents of a Detroit neighborhood are on edge because of a gigantic cat prowling around their community.

"I've never seen a cat that big -- even on TV," local resident Nathan McGuire, 47, who snapped a grainy photo of the cat, told the Detroit Free Press.

Last weekend McGuire's 12-year-old reportedly spotted the cat in the neighborhood and ran into the house screaming. McGuire rushed outside to find the cat, but by then it had disappeared, the Free Press reported.

A local teenager also claims to have seen the big cat. Paul Hatley, 14, told the Free Press that he saw the cat while walking down the street.

"It wasn't normal," he said. "It didn't run away like normal cat. It just stared at you. ... It was scary."

On Friday the Michigan Humane Society told the Free Press that it will investigate the situation.

Nancy Gunnigle, a director with the Humane Society, told the Free Press that cats so large are "not easy to catch."

"We're going to put some effort into this," she said.

While the breed of the cat -- and whether or not it is domesticated -- has not been confirmed, many online commentators suggest it is either a serval or a Savannah cat.

Servals are medium-sized wild cats native to Africa. Though small compared to cheetahs, leopards of other cats of the same ilk, servals are much larger than a typical house cat. Savanah cats are a crossbreed between servals and domestic cats. F1-type Savannah cats, where one of the parents is a full serval, can cost thousands of dollars.

Michigan state has a large carnivore act which forbids residents from owning a number of large, exotic cats, but servals -- which can weigh up to 40 pounds and stand more than two feet tall at the shoulder -- are not on that list.