6-year-old boy floats away in balloon

[AndyRad]

Here is the link

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation_world/20091015_ap_6yearoldboyfloatsawayinballoon.html

i hope all goes well in this story

 

[JBoyd]

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/10/15/trapped-balloon-child.html

An experimental homemade helium balloon in Colorado is back on the ground after drifting away, apparently with a six-year-old on board. The child's fate is unknown.

 

[Michael OLeary]

The child's fate is unknown.

Grounded for life, probably.

 

[JBoyd]

CBC just updated the previous link that I posted,

The boy was initially thought to have climbed into the basket of the balloon when it was tethered in the backyard of his family's Fort Collins, Colo., home.

However, the boy was not found when the basket of the balloon was opened on the ground.

 

[brandon_]

Grounded for life, probably.

if he made it out alright...

 

[Michael OLeary]

Let's hope it is later discovered he was never in the basket.

 

[Redeye]

Let's hope it is later discovered he was never in the basket.

It seems that is the case according to the latest.

 

[JBoyd]

It seems that is the case according to the latest.

CBC is reporting that a ground search has been launched. I would hope that for one to have been launched that they would have searched the boys home first.

 

[JBoyd]

Balloon boy found alive at home
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/10/15/trapped-balloon-child.html

A six-year-old Colorado boy who was originally thought to have been on board an experimental homemade balloon that was accidentally released into the air and sailed through the sky for two hours has been found alive at his home.

Falcon Heene had been hiding in a box in the attic of the garage, according to investigators

more on link

 

[Michael OLeary]

And the last word comes from TFLN - Texts From Last Night:

(917): half the nation just spent an hour watching a balloon fly around. we are officially the dumbest fucking country.

 

[PMedMoe]

I heard on the radio this morning that the boy was told by his father to hide as it was "all part of a show".  The father says he doesn't know what the boy is talking about.  :

I'd be interested to see if the father (who seems to be a bit of a wing-nut) or one of the older sons gets charged with mischief or something.

 

[JBoyd]

I find that believable, the Heene family was also once on the show 'Wife Swap'

 

[AndyRad]

now...This is my question. Who is paying the bill for shutting down the airport in denver i think it was and the military support out for the search there?

 

[PMedMoe]

No hoax proof in runaway balloon case: sheriff

CBC News
Authorities in Colorado have no proof that Falcon Heene's family was carrying out a hoax when they reported he was in a helium balloon that floated away from their home, the Larimer County sheriff says.

However, police plan to interview the Heene family again Saturday, in light of questions raised about the incident after six-year-old Falcon said "We did this for a show" in an interview with CNN on Thursday night, Sheriff Jim Alderden said at a news conference Friday.

More on link

 

[PMedMoe]

I hope they find extra charges.

Parents of 'balloon boy' will face charges

Criminal charges will be filed against the parents of six-year-old Falcon Heene, a Colorado sheriff said, after authorities were led to believe the boy had floated away in a balloon.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said Richard and Mayumi Heene have not been arrested, and the type of charges were still being considered.

"We were looking at Class 3 misdemeanor, which hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances," Alderden said. "We are talking to the district attorney, federal officials to see if perhaps there aren't additional federal charges that are appropriate in this circumstance."

........

The family's behaviour before and after the incident has raised eyebrows, and questions.

They gave numerous media interviews after Falcon was found. During two of them, Falcon threw up when asked why he hid.

And the Heenes called the Federal Aviation Administration and a local television station before calling emergency services.

More at link

Yep, I bet they were really concerned about their child.  :

 

[PMedMoe]

The truth starts to come out......

Couple hoped balloon hoax would land TV show

Investigators say the saga of a boy mistakenly thought to be floating high above Colorado in a homemade balloon was an elaborate hoax, with the intent of landing the family a reality television series.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden told reporters the alleged hoax had been planned for at least two weeks and that investigators suspect more people and an unnamed "media outlet" were in on it.

On Thursday, six-year-old Falcon Heene's parents called 911, claiming the boy was in the UFO-shaped balloon when it drifted away from the family's backyard.

When the balloon landed after an 80-kilometre flight, Falcon was nowhere to be found. He was discovered five hours later at home, hiding in the rafters of the family's garage.

Alderden said police believe they have enough evidence to file charges against the boy's parents Richard and Mayumi Heene. Authorities are also looking into a media outlet in their investigation.

"We do understand, looking at some of the documents already, that at least one of the media outlets has agreed to pay them some money with regards to this particular incident," Alderden said.

He would not name the outlet, but said he was not talking about a news organization and said it was a show that blurs "the line between entertainment and news."

More on link

 

[PMedMoe]

This case just keeps getting stranger.......

Balloon boy's dad says he was framed

The father who orchestrated the balloon boy hoax is taking advantage of his final days of freedom by making the rounds on news shows and telling anyone who will listen that he is innocent and being framed.

Authorities are not amused by Richard Heene's media blitz, and legal experts say he should be careful about thumbing his nose at the system.

Heene now says there was no balloon hoax, even though he pleaded guilty and agreed to be sentenced to 90 days in jail. He says he truly believed his son was inside the runaway balloon when it floated away in October, and that he only pleaded guilty to appease authorities and save his wife from being deported to Japan.

The interviews are also pushing the boundaries of the strict conditions of his probation that he not profit in any way from his newfound fame for four years. Interviews on CNN and NBC do not violate the probation, but he's clearly tempting fate by basking in the spotlight of a national TV audience.

"Talk about waving a red cape in front of a bull," said Stan Goldman, a criminal law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

More on link

Waving a red cape, indeed!  :

 

[PMedMoe]

This idiot just doesn't know when to quit.

Balloon dad blames wife's grasp of English

The father who pleaded guilty to orchestrating America's balloon boy hoax is to turn himself in to begin serving a 90-day jail sentence Monday following a media blitz in which he said he was innocent.

Richard Heene told The Associated Press that his Japanese wife misunderstood the meaning of the word "hoax" when she purportedly confessed to authorities.

.......

"My wife's first language is Japanese, not English," Richard Heene said. "My wife came home in tears wondering what she might have said. She opened this Japanese-to-English dictionary, and she walks up to me crying her head off, and she says to me, 'I thought hoax meant an exhibition."

More on link

I think he's had way more than his fifteen minutes......  :

 

[PMedMoe]

Hopefully, this is the last we hear of these idiots.  :

Balloon boy parents to pay $36,000

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The parents who pleaded guilty in the balloon boy hoax have agreed to pay about $36,000 in restitution to authorities who responded to the incident.

Larimer County Chief Judge Stephen Schapanski accepted the agreement that prosecutors reached with Richard and Mayumi Heene, who weren't at Tuesday's hearing.

The Larimer County sheriff's office and other agencies had sought $48,000 for responding to the Oct. 15 incident. The Heenes reported their 6-year-old son had floated away in a homemade UFO-shaped helium balloon, touching off a scramble of dozens of emergency responders and two Colorado National Guard helicopters.

More on link