Life-size replica of E.T. comes home

E.T. came home.

Nine years ago, Margaret Wells' daughter built a life-size replica of Steven Spielberg's famous extraterrestrial character, E.T., for a stage make-up course.

This September, E.T. was stolen — along with jewelry and other valuables — from Wells' Cosham, Hants, home.

Last Thursday, a passerby called police after spotting what appeared to be a body washed up on a nearby shore. It was E.T.

"It rolled up on the beach and gave somebody a bit of a fright," a coastguard spokeswoman told The Telegraph.

The alien looked "a bit roughed up," and was missing a finger, but "he had a smile on his face," Wells told The Portsmouth News.

"There's only one in the whole of England and that is mine," Wells said. "The police rang and said, 'Somebody has found a body in the Solent and it belongs to you — it's E.T.'"

She added, "I always knew E.T. would come home."