Irish girl's lost soccer ball floats 124 miles to Welsh beach

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- An Irish girl's soccer ball floated out to sea and was found seven days later washed up on a beach 124 miles away in Wales.

Aline Denton, a volunteer at Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Center, said she found the ball while participating in a beach clean-up in Llanrhystud and noticed it was marked with the name Aoife Ni Niocaill.

Denton posted photos of the ball to Facebook, along with an appeal for help finding the girl.

"Her football's just washed up on Llanrhystud beach -- West Wales! Wonder how long it's taken to get here from Ireland?" Denton wrote.

The post came to the attention of Aoife's father, who revealed the 10-year-old girl had lost the ball at Woodstown beach in County Waterford about seven days earlier.

"It went in the water as the tide was going out and all we could do was watch it drift away," the father wrote in a Facebook comment.

Denton said the ball will be returned to the girl.