The case of a giant Mylar balloon, which ascended into the sky late last week amid fears a 6-year-old boy was aboard, has been determined to be a “hoax” and a “publicity stunt,” Larimer County, Colorado, Sheriff Jim Alderden said Sunday.
Earlier in the day, sheriff’s deputies and detectives were seen entering and leaving the house of Richard Heene.
Sheriff Jim Alderden confirmed that the drama was indeed a hoax and said that he believes the Heene family carried out the ordeal of releasing the balloon on Thursday with hopes of them better marketing themselves for a reality television show sometime in the future.
The sheriff also said that he can prove that the balloon was not capable of carrying a boy of Falcon Heene’s weight.
Heene is the storm-chasing father whose giant Mylar balloon ascended into the sky late last week, sparking fears that his 6-year-old son Falcon was aboard.
The Heenes have said the balloon was supposed to be tethered to the ground when it lifted off, and no one was supposed to be aboard. A video of the launch shows the family counting down in unison, “3, 2, 1,” before Richard Heene pulls a cord, setting the balloon into the air.
“Whoa!” one of the boys exclaims. Then his father says in disbelief, “Oh, my God!” He then says to someone, “You didn’t put the (expletive) tether down!” and he kicks the wood frame that had held the balloon.
Falcon’s brother said he saw him inside the compartment before it took off and that’s why they thought he was in there when it launched. Heene said he had yelled at Falcon before the launch for getting inside.
A dispatcher with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department declined to release any information about the search.
“We anticipate criminal charges will be filed sometime in the near future,” Alderden told CNN late Saturday.
Speculation over whether Thursday’s incident, which prompted a widespread search, was a hoax has mounted against Heene, father of three young boys.
If it were determined that the incident was a hoax, the only charge local authorities could press would be making a false report to authorities — a Class 3 misdemeanor, Alderden told reporters Saturday.
However, a misdemeanor “hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances,” the sheriff said.
He added that investigators and prosecutors may push the case beyond the local level to see “if perhaps there aren’t additional federal charges that would be more appropriate.”
(Source: CNN / WCBSTV)
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22 Responses
***NEWSFLASH**** YWN is correct again! Called it a hoax right after the boy was found hiding in the home. In fact here are some of the comments who criticized YWN for posting that.
“BH the boy was found, but what’s THE HOAX?
Comment by ginas vradim — October 15, 2009 @ 6:20 pm”
Yeshiva World was this indeed a hoax?!?
WATCH YOUR HEADLINES! Make sure they are accurate.
Comment by ithink — October 15, 2009 @ 9:23 pm
there still is no proof that it was a haox it was meant to be tied down and it wasnt and then they noticed that falcon is missing and the brother said he saw him in there before so they got frantic but really it turns out that falcon was scared of his father so he hid in the attic sounds fair to me
nutty family.
Why would someone do that?
Now I can live harmoniously. Thank you YW for this very important news breaking.
YWN wasn’t correct, they just threw a headline out, which happened to end up correct.
amb, what do you mean by that?
Exactly what I mean, YWN didn’t ‘know’ they threw a wild guess which sounded sillý at the time.
Like they and many othem media outlets do often.
many other news outlets reported it hours before ywn anybody that listened to the radio and hearde the recording would have known without doubt that it was a hoax
I agree with amb. The fact that YW was correct in retrospect does not amend the poor journalism displayed.
Let’s not make a habit out of psychic news stories.
To 10:
We’re talking about when YWN release the info immediately after they found the boy in he attic.
First of all I would like to say that YWN does a great job of reporting. Thank you YWN – Keep up the great work.
Now – to all of you who think it’s “cool” or whatever – to make nasty comments to YWN and/or each other – I have this to say – GROW UP ALREADY!! We just finished with Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Did you not gain anything from these very serious Yomim Tovim? What kind of kavanah did you have while davening? Did you not commit to try to become better? Where is our Ahavas Yisroel? I’ve noticed this decline in the content of the posts for a while now – not just on this article. What started out as a wonderful website with interesting give and take, has turned into a forum where people air their worst thoughts and hurl terrible accusations at each other. What a shame!!! Don’t we have enough troubles without all of you adding to it? It’s so sad. I wouldn’t be surprised if YWN took off their website because of this – and that would be a disservice to all of us. So – come on- stop this nonsense and make this a serious and B’Kavodik site. May we all merit the coming of Moshiach in peace – very soon.
14: I think that the quotation “take a chill pill” was created just for you.
Anyways, thanks for the laugh.
14 I think you are absolutely right.
#14 I couldn’t agree with you more!thanks for the smart words!!
Me think it was a kid’s prank and no hoax.
#15 Your comment is proof of what I was talking about. I think it’s everyon else who needs to “take a chill pill”. It’s too bad you got a laugh out of my post. I hope others took it more seriously.
This was the goyim giving us an end of bein hazmanim badchan!
stzc,
I totally agree. The comments on this site used to be a lot more serious, it has become such a leitzanus.
I’m still trying to figure out why this story was on YWN in the first place.
#17 and #21 Thank you for your posts. Now I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
#22 YWN doesn’t only report Jewish stories. They report stories of interest as well.
#16- Sorry, but I didn’t see your comment before. Thank you for your post. Like I said in #23, it’s nice to know people agree.