It was time to say goodbye.

Five years of knotting, stretching and wrapping came to an end. For one last time, 28-year-old Joel Waul posed with his claim to fame -- a nearly 10,000-pound rubber band ball, considered the largest in the world.

Waul watched as a crane slowly lifted the nearly seven-foot tall, 25-foot wide mass of yellow, purple and green out of his Lauderhill driveway and lowered it onto a flatbed truck destined for Orlando. There, it will join other noteable items as part of Ripley's Believe It or Not!

It began on April 10, 2004. That's the day, according to Waul, he saw a television episode of Ripley's featuring the then-record holder for largest rubber band ball.

Waul wanted the record. He got to work.

``Right then, on the spot,'' he said, ``I started.''

He started small, stretching together the brown rubber bands found in most offices. When those wouldn't work, he moved up to the industrial size.

Every six months, he called officials at Ripley's, reporting his progress.

The round mound of rubber grew, reaching the point where it couldn't fit inside the home. Waul moved it outside, to the driveway, where it sat covered in a blue tarp for protection.

Pictures taken for Google Maps' street view function caught the ball and still show it.

It became a neighborhood icon.

Letitta Bush, 30, would tell visitors needing directions that her house was the one ``by the blue ball.''

In 2008, the Guinness Book of World Records named it the largest around.

Waul didn't spend all his time on it. He still hung out with friends, played video games and worked nights restocking shelves at the GAP store in the Sawgrass Mills Mall.

Ripley's officials said they have had their eyes on the ball for about a year.

With the record broken and the ball looking good, Waul decided to let it go.

Ripley's made him an offer -- but wouldn't say how much they paid for it.

On Thursday, the nondescript Lauderhill street was filled with trucks, a crane and fans of the ``Waul Ball'' coming to say goodbye.

One woman went up to Waul's mother and said, ``You have a very smart son.''

Waul's mother, Maureen Latham, didn't get caught up in the frenzy of the day. ``Ten more minutes, and then I have to go to work,'' she reminded her son.

Waul did one last round of pictures, climbing atop the ball and posing. He held a certificate of recognition from Ripley's in one hand and held up his index finger, No. 1, with the other.

Then he climbed down, and the move began.

The rubber ball will temporarily be staying in Orlando before a more permanent home is found. It can't go into just any Ripley's because of the logistics of moving it.

``We can't roll it through the door,'' said Edward Meyer, vice president of exhibits and archives for Ripley's.

Because the ball will have to be lowered in, Ripley's has to find a place without a roof. The current candidates are museums in Los Angeles and San Francisco because they are undergoing renovations.

As the ball was loaded up and driven away, Waul watched through a cell phone, capturing video.

He's already thinking of his next challenge -- undergoing stunt training. After that, he wants to go for another world record: longest amount of time spent on fire.

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