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LAUDERHILL (CBS4) ― Here's a riddle: What weighs nearly 10,000 pounds, stands nearly 7 feet tall and is made entirely of rubber?

The answer: Megaton, the world's largest rubber band ball.

Megaton is the brainchild and homemade lawn ornament -- it takes up half of a parking space -- of Joel Waul. On Thursday afternoon, though, Megaton was hauled away from its Lauderhill home to move to a Ripley's Believe it or Not museum. A team from Ripley's brought a crane and a flatbed truck to haul it away.

Ripley's Believe it or Not Vice President Edward Meyer said the big ball will go in a warehouse and then someday be shown in a museum. "We have the biggest barbed wire ball, the biggest paper ball, and now the biggest rubber band ball. It's the holy trinity of big balls."

"Kind of sad to see it go," Waul, 28, told CBS4's Carey Codd. "It will go to a better place where people can see it and appreciate the wonder."

Wonder is an understatement. Waul said he got the idea to build the ball after watching a Ripley's TV show where they dropped a rubber band ball from an airplane. He admits he's always had a goal to break or create a world record.

"At 8, I read the Guinness Book of World Records. I saw the world's tallest man. I wanted to break that record but it didn't happen."

He's not the tallest man but he certainly holds a record nonetheless.

Waul started Megaton in April 2004. He only works on it for two weeks a year, though.

"I don't have the patience to sit there and do it every day," Waul said. "Everybody thinks I do, but I don't."

Neighbors could not believe how persistent he was. "I will miss it," neighbor Darlene Bush told CBS4's Jim Berry.

The ball grew and grew as Waul added 500 or 1,000 pounds of rubber bands at a time. Waul even received a sponsorship from a rubber band company, which provided him rubber bands to use. He's gone through small household rubber bands, physical therapy bands and industrial size rubber bands.

As it grew, the ball was moved from inside Waul's house to the garage and eventually to the driveway, where it soon became a neighborhood landmark. In November 2008, Guinness certified the ball as the largest rubber band ball in the world.

"I think the record will stand," Waul proclaimed proudly.

Containing about 730,000 rubber bands, the ball can even be seen from Google Earth. Its massive size even surprises Waul. "I wake up in the morning and I'm like what is this thing doing in my front yard," Waul said. "You know, like, I can't even park here."

On occasion, Waul has experienced the rubber band blues. He said he's learned rubber bands hurt when they snap. The bands have broken safety goggles and Megaton has rolled over his hands and feet.

"It rolled over my hand when it was 400 pounds and sprained it for a week," Waul said.

But Waul has pressed on. He is proud of his creation although he admits it "got a little out of hand."

Waul said he is living proof that anyone who sets their mind to a task can accomplish it. "Keep on dreaming and you can do anything you want to," Waul said. "It might take longer than you want but if you're really determined it will get done."

He said Ripley's is paying him for the ball, but won't say how much. He only said the money will help pay for him to attend stunt-training school in Seattle, Washington. Waul hopes to become a stuntman and possibly attempt to break more world records.


CBS4's Jim Berry contributed to this story.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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