BANGOR – There may have been a Tiger prowling in eastern Maine early Wednesday morning. Professional golfer Tiger Woods allegedly was spotted at Dunkin’ Donuts on Broadway in Bangor at 6:30 a.m. and was later seen in Greenville.

“He walked in the store and I looked up and said to myself, ‘Jeez, that looks like Tiger Woods,”‘ Lou Lima Jr., general manager of Broadway Dunkin’ Donuts, said later Wednesday. Lima said he is 99.9 percent sure it was Woods.

The sighting touched off a daylong Tiger hunt by local media that stretched to the Greenville area, where a local community official confirmed the PGA star was holed up.

Woods, 25, arrived in the Moosehead Lake region Wednesday for some fishing and some rest and relaxation, according to a community official.

The official, who did not want to be named, said Woods and a bodyguard are staying at an undisclosed location in the region and planned to stay until Sunday, when they will head “north.” Woods told the official that he had heard a lot about the area and wanted to escape for a short vacation.

Several people in the community were aware that Woods was in Greenville but were extremely tight-lipped about his visit.

Stuart Watt, owner of the Indian Hill Trading Post, said he believed that Woods was in the area but the star athlete had not yet stopped in the store. “We were hoping to see him,”‘ he said.

In Bangor, Lima said Woods was accompanied by another man into Dunkin’ Donuts. Lima started talking to them while he waited on them, serving them chocolate-covered doughnuts, coffee and juice.

“I asked them if they were headed to work or going golfing,” he said. “The guy that was with him said he was a pro-trainer. I asked, ‘Are you going to teach him anything?’ and he said, ‘Well, it’s Tiger Woods.”‘

Lima asked the man he believed to be Woods for his autograph, but the man declined.

“I could tell he didn’t want anyone to know he was here,” Lima said.

A customer in the doughnut shop spotted the golfers as well, Lima said, and he must have been the one who called local radio station WVOM, 103.9 FM, which broadcast the alleged sighting.

KISS 94.5 FM radio picked up the story as well.

Doubt about the sighting grew Wednesday afternoon when Woods’ publicist, Bev Norwood of International Management Group, said Woods is nowhere near Maine.

“I can tell you he is in Alaska on a fishing trip right this minute,” Norwood said. “[Mistaken sightings] happen from time to time. Two years ago we got a call that he was in Argentina on vacation, but he was playing a PGA tournament in Florida.”

Norwood would not comment on where in Alaska Woods was fishing or what type of fishing he was doing.

“He’s not in Maine – he’s at the other end of the country,” he said.

In the transcript of a Buick Classic press conference posted on tigerwoods.com, Woods said he was taking a break to prepare for the British Open, which begins July 19.

The Buick Classic at Harrison, N.Y., ended Monday after a rain delay extended the tournament. Woods finished in a tie for 16th place.

“I am going fishing,” he said on the Web site. “Sometimes it is nice to take a little break. I have taken three weeks off heading into a major before and I have won.”

Woods tentatively is scheduled to compete in next week’s Advil Western Open, where he has won two of the last four years. He might extend his break, according to the Web site, until the British Open, when he begins defense of his British Open crown at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in England.

Woods has won 35 tournaments in his career, 27 of those on the PGA Tour, including the 1997 and 2001 Masters Tournaments, 1999 and 2000 PGA Championships, 2000 U.S. Open Championship, and 2000 British Open Championship.

With his second Masters victory in 2001, Woods became the first player to hold all four professional major championships at the same time.

He is the career victories leader among active players on the PGA Tour and is the career money list leader.

Woods apparently had stopped in Bangor previously. It was reported his corporate jet landed at Bangor International Airport in May 2000 to refuel, although BIA officials refused to confirm or deny the report because of confidentiality policy.

NEWS reporters Jessica Bloch and Diana Bowley contributed to this report.