So it looks like the lawyer for Richard Heene, the man accused of perpetrating the balloon boy hoax to promote a reality show will be charged by police after emails showed that he had been planning this even for a couple months.
In case you live in a bubble, or without TV, all the major TV stations carried this drama on live television to millions of viewers worldwide. The alleged stunt temporarily shut down Denver International Airport, and the National Guard provided two helicopters in an attempt to rescue 6-year-old Falcon Heene, who was believed to be inside the flying-saucer shaped homemade balloon that hurtled more than 50 miles across two counties.
Here is the image broadcast across the world…
Crap. That’s not it.
Oh yeah. He was supposed to be floating away in this tin-foil piece of shit.
So when the balloon landed without the boy, officials thought he had fallen out and began the grim search for his body… On live TV no less. But as it turns out, this was nothing more than a marketing ploy by the Heenes, this odd American family who met in acting school in Hollywood and have appeared on ABC’s reality show “Wife Swap.”
So essentially, the Heene family got what they wanted… Or what they thought they wanted. They got the attention of the masses but with that “fame” comes the intense investigation into their private lives, including reporters trying to find out why they did this, what they had hoped to gain, who knew about it, and there has even been investigation into their private lives and into them as people. It has been very overwhelming for a family that just wanted to be famous. But they deserved it.
The gig was up when investigators were able to get a good look at the “flying saucer” and they were able to determine that the thin mylar balloon was covered with tinfoil and held together with duct tape, and would not have been able to launch with the 37-pound-boy inside.
Then other parts of their “story” started to come apart, including whether their 6-year-old boy, oddly named “Falcon”, had been hiding in the rafters of the family’s garage during an intense five-hour search, or in their attack, turned out to not be true, ”For all we know he may have been two blocks down the road playing on the swing in the city park,” the sheriff said. This lie came to light when the boy turned to his dad during a CNN interview on Thursday and said what sounded like “you had said we did this for a show” when asked why he didn’t come out of his hiding place.
The sheriff also said that all three of the Heenes’ sons knew of the hoax, but likely won’t face charges because of their ages. The oldest son is 10. One of the boys told investigators he saw his brother get in the balloon’s box before it launched. Clearly a lie too.
Richard Heene, a 48-year-old storm chaser, inventor, wack-job, and self-described amateur scientist, has a high school education and most recently earned a living by laying tile. Police records show that they have responded to the Heene house at least twice in the past year, including a possible domestic violence incident in February. No charges were ever filed, although officials did try to persuade Mayumi Heene, 45, to go to a safe house, but she declined.
On the simply horrible “reality” TV show ”Wife Swap,” Heene was portrayed as erratic, at one point throwing a glass of milk on a participant on the program.
The sheriff said the children were still with the parents Sunday and that child protective services had been contacted to investigate their well-being.
Well done, Heene family… Well done.
Your 15 minutes of fame are up. Enjoy jail.
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