Falcon Heene, with his mother, Mayumi, on Thursday after the boy turned out not to have been on a runaway balloon. Speculation about a hoax increased after a comment by the boy.
If it weren't for the fact that it was mildly horrifying to watch on live TV, the story would have seemed straight out of a Roald Dahl novel. Hoax or no hoax, the Heene family had the country captivated for the better part of Thursday -- all because of an empty floating balloon. For his second act, the would-be balloon pilot, Falcon (at far right), charms the nation by barfing on the "Today" show. Other reality TV families should take note -- this is how good drama is done.
Ryo Heene peeks from the front door of his family's Fort Collins home Friday, facing a group of reporters and photographers. The 8-year-old told journalists his dad was sleeping.
Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said it "seemed inconceivable" that Falcon — who spent hours running around his neighborhood and climbing on the family cars after emerging from hiding Thursday afternoon — could have been coached to sit still in his hiding space for so long.
"It seems much more likely that the boy was in fact frightened," Alderden said. "That seems like a credible story."
But Internet and television pundit speculation about the story only grew stronger Friday, and Alderden said investigators planned to re-interview the family to answer lingering questions and contradictions in the case.
He said the results of the Sheriff Office's investigation would be handed over to Larimer County's child-protection workers for a possible investigation of their own.
The Heenes, meanwhile, adamantly denied perpetrating a hoax during a string of televised media interviews Friday morning — including two in which a weary-looking Falcon vomited.
"This is not some kind of hoax," Richard Heene said on NBC's "Today" show.
"I'm repetitively getting asked this," he said. "What do I have to gain out of this? I'm not selling anything. I'm not advertising anything."
After the morning blitz, the Heenes cut off the media for the day, posting a sign on their door that read: "Thank you for all of your support. We are not taking any interviews any more. We are tired."
During a moment outside, the Heenes' 8-year-old son, Ryo, told reporters his dad was sleeping.
"My dad said he is tired of the show," the boy said.
One minute, President Obama was on the television, speaking about the rebirth of New Orleans, the usual array of citizenry behind him. In the next, he had been shoved aside by a live, breaking Grimm's fairy tale. And like all children's fables, it was at once horrifying and enchanting.
This Story
*
A Mystery Aloft, a Nation Riveted -- And One Grounded Balloon Boy
*
Balloon Boy: 'I Thought I'd Get in Trouble'
*
Balloon Lands With No Sign of Child
A rambunctious 6-year-old boy had climbed into a homemade helium balloon, the anchors announced gravely. Now he was floating so prettily 7,000 feet above Colorado, toward the heavens, at the mercy of the winds.
For three hours on a workaday Thursday, a mesmerized and helpless America watched this shiny silvery disc spin slowly against a brilliant blue sky with puffy white clouds. As it tipped this way and that, emergency vehicles trailed the balloon over two counties and 50 miles. The Air Force was alerted. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded planes. A Black Hawk chopper flew in close, blades slashing, to create a downwash to defeat a contraption that looked like a giant birthday party balloon.
There became one conversation, one America: What's the latest on the balloon boy? How are they going to get him down? Here came the parade of experts, in air balloon construction, mechanics and lore. How'd he get up there anyway?
At last, the jet stream set the shimmering orb gently down in the middle of a vast field.
Men in overalls ran to the balloon and stabbed it with shovels until it slowly crumpled.
A nation held its breath.
There was no boy.
Authorities scoured the ground for bits of broken plywood, a crumpled child.
And then, five hours after the horror began, someone interrupted the sheriff giving a breaking-news briefing: The boy had been found!
His name was Falcon, the perfect fairy-tale name. He had been hiding in a cardboard box in the rafters of the garage. "I played," the boy told reporters, "and then I went to sleep."
Falcon is the youngest of three boys who seem to have the kind of escapades few boys do these days. They live in Fort Collins, Colo., with their parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, who both have made appearances in a YouTube music video in which the boys starred. Mom rocked it out on guitar.
On the video, these are just the sort of boys who might hop a boxcar, who would figure out how to make the toilet explode. The Heene household was an adventureland, a place where Maurice Sendak met "Wife Swap." The family appeared earlier this year on the ABC reality show in which two mothers switch households and come away aghast at how other people live. On the Heenes' episode, a risk-taking, storm-chasing amateur scientist swapped his wife with a safety-obsessed family.
Richard Heene's MySpace page says he "flew into Hurricane Wilma to take magnetic field measurements" in 2005, and it was just an ordinary family vacation from the looks of it in a Denver television station report uploaded to YouTube. "This year I rode a motorcycle into a mesocyclone." He also said he'd like to meet "real aliens from outer space and conduct a full interview with them."
On Thursday, the trio of rascal brothers had been playing out back with the balloon their father built. Richard hollered at Falcon for climbing into a plywood box on the craft. When the balloon came untethered and floated away, Falcon was nowhere to be found.
Neighbor Bob Licko heard a commotion and saw two boys on the roof with a camera, he told the Associated Press. "One of the boys yelled to me that his brother was way up in the air."
The mother was distraught, Licko said, and the father was running around the house.
Falcon slept through it all, sound in his cardboard box. When he emerged, he gave the explanation that naughty boys have used for centuries.
"He scared me because he yelled at me," Falcon said. "That's why I went in the attic."
His father said he was really sorry and hugged his balloon boy.
The Heene family had one more video to post on YouTube. And the nation had, if nothing else, a memorable Wild Rumpus.
---
----
----
---
---
RELATED POSTS:-
- Police serve warrants in Yale grad student slaying-Cops searched the home of Yale lab tech Raymond Clark, who is a 'person of interest' murder case
- Annie Le body found in behind Yale Uni Lab wall - Missing 5 days before wedding - Found dead behind wall on wedding day.
- FBI, Police Raid New York Homes in Terror Probe
- Breaking News :-Police: Body found could be missing Yale student at wall in the basement
- Search for Yale student turns to Conn. incinerator- Missing 1 week before wedding.Now cancelled. Bloody clothers found in lab ceiling.
- Milwaukee man arrested in connection to 9 killings. DNA science and shoe leather lead to arrests. 9 victims are prostitute and a runaway.
- Mentall ill patient escape from field trip- Captured 4 days later.No one injured. Convicted for killing old man.
- Indonesia cannot relax militant fight: Australia PM
- Aid pours into quake-hit Indonesia-
- Toll from Typhoon Ketsana climbs- More than 100 000 are misplaced may reach to 300 000 peoples.
- Another powerful quake hits Indonesia's Sumatra
- Philippine storm leaves 106 dead and missing
- Mexico jet hijacking suspect held
- Dozens missing from sunken ferry - Latests now only 3 dead and 80 missings.
- Back to Google News Hurricane wave sweeps Maine spectators out to sea..Surfer's heaven , Spectator items
- Is Caster Semenya female or male ?
- Why Are Michael Jackson Autopsy Results Taking So Long?
- Debbie Rowe Denies 'Selling' Jackson Kids, Says 'Hell No' to Taking Custody
- Michael Jackson convert to Islam few years back
- La toya Jackson old pictures - Believe Michael was murdered..
0 comments:
Post a Comment