Balloon Boy hoax EXPOSED

A reporter has discovered new evidence in the Balloon Boy hoax. It seems surprising and pretty definitive. It wasn't quite what anyone thought.

I've written about Balloon Boy a couple of times here. I wrote about him in the writing group I went to before the pandemic and was surprised that no one knew what I was talking about. 

In 2009, I walked in and found my mother watching the big news on TV. Several news helicopters along with police both in the air and on the ground were chasing a silvery, helium-filled flying-saucer shaped homemade balloon over Colorado somewhere. It had gotten loose and flown away from a guy's backyard and he thought his six-year-old son, Falcon, might be in it. 

Falcon was dubbed "Balloon Boy".

They chased the balloon for an hour. It finally landed in a field. But there was no Balloon Boy. Had he fallen out?

No, the kid was home. He had been playing with his cars in the rafters of the garage and had fallen asleep.

The father was Richard Heene who had been an especially obnoxious husband on Wife Swap and was then trying to get his own reality show about a father and his sons who do science stuff.

A few days later, the family was being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer asked why Balloon Boy didn't come out when he heard people calling him. His father passed the question on to him. Balloon Boy replied, "You guys said we did it for the show." 

Richard Heene went to jail for thirty days. His wife plead guilty to something but I don't know if she went to jail. 

October last year, a reporter named Robert Sanchez did an article in 5280, Denver's mile high magazine, in which he reveals the TRUTH about the Balloon Boy caper

I just read it. It was interesting. At least to me.

You might just read his article here: https://www.5280.com/2019/09/the-balloon-boy-hoax-solved/

Ballon Boy's father still says he's innocent

It was kind of pitiful. Richard Heene wanted a reality show so bad. It was going to be his ticket out of a life of loud, over the top desperation. He's incredibly obnoxious and, I don't know if he thinks he's being funny, but he acted this way in a video of the balloon taking off, thrashing around so everyone would know how terribly upset he was that the balloon was "accidentally" released. He apparently thinks he's acting naturally.

Here he is on Wife Swap:

Ten years after the Balloon Boy incident, Robert Sanchez visited Balloon Boy and his family in Florida where they were living in a travel trailer. I read that Heene had forced Balloon Boy and his brothers to form a heavy metal band cleverly named "The Heene Boyz" and lived off their income, but the band was only a novelty while they were children. Once they were teenagers, they were just another garage band. They did a pro-Trump "song" (even though their mother is an immigrant and a convicted criminal), and a song called "Balloon Boy--No Hoax". 

So, to get to the point, Sanchez interviewed Heene's lawyer who gave him a large box of materials on the case. One item amidst the hundreds of pages was statement handwritten by Heene's wife, Mayumi. She's Japanese, hence the mistakes in English. From the article:

The following 12 pages appeared to have been created for her attorney, a blow-by-blow of the event. The first entry was dated April 27, 2009. The production company had gotten five rejections on the reality show over five months. “What could we do to help them?” Mayumi wrote. “They wouldn’t put up money, but we can do our own project…. Then they can make a ‘one-off’ out of it.” 

For September 30, Mayumi wrote: “Richard redesigned flying saucer many times. He started 30 feet. He called around to see if it’s feedable [sic], but he found it away [sic] expensive. Also he found it wouldn’t fit in our back yard.” 

October 1: “Richard made a shop list.” [Did she mean shot list?] 

October 2: “We shot intro of this project on the couch with kids.” 

October 3: “We started building a flying saucer and shooting the process inside of the house because it was snowing.” 

Then things get weird. 

October 6: “We have a video of Falcon saying, ‘I want to get inside of it.’ ” 

October 14: “At night, Richard asked me to remember about the story of ‘Lawnchair Larry,’ then Richard mentioned what if Falcon hid for ½ hours later and landed, then mention in [news]paper, Fort Collins…. Falcon can hide in the closet with a safe in the basement.” 

October 15: “To my understanding, we’re never going to launch the flying saucer because the strong wind changed our mind. Because of the wind, it might crash on somebody, cars or anything…. Richard said we would do the third test and quit. That’s why I thought he was acting so strange. After the flying saucer went off, he went so hysterical. Because he started so hysterical, I started taking it seriously. After it was launched, we did not know whether Falcon was in the flying saucer or in the house or anywhere.” 

October 18: “I found out when we visited our attorney’s [sic] that Richard revealed he came down to the basement to look for Falcon, but he wasn’t there. Richard thought really Falcon would be in the flying saucer.” 

The notes explained everything. Here it was in black and white: For all the times Richard had claimed everyone had the story wrong, for all the tall tales he told me, Mayumi’s notes showed a motive and a plan. 

It’s not difficult to piece it together: With a video camera rolling, Richard would launch the balloon and freak out. He’d call the FAA and get the balloon tracked. There’d be a tearful reunion when Falcon emerged from the basement, where he’d been told to hide. 

Richard would call back and say his son wasn’t in the basket. They’d make sure the Fort Collins newspaper knew about the stray saucer and the drama behind it. The story might go nationwide. With publicity in full force and a recording of every moment, networks would fight over the Heenes’ story. 

Except Falcon didn’t hide where he was told to. He hid in the garage attic, not in the basement. He played with his cars and he fell asleep. The FAA said Richard needed to call 911. Deputies showed up. Neighbors began searching for Falcon. And then that silvery balloon was careening across our television screens. That’s why Mayumi’s reunion with Falcon was so believable: For a few hours, she and Richard honestly worried their son had been swept away.

Sanchez called Heene and asked about this.

He fumbled for words when I explained what I’d found. He wanted to know where I’d gotten the notes and if he could see them. I could hear Mayumi in the background, denying to her husband that she’d written anything. I emailed photos of the notes to Richard, and he asked if he could call back the next day.

It was a couple of days before they spoke again, then his wife admitted she wrote it but it had all been a lie. Heene did that thing where he acts like an idiot and actually thinks it will fool the reporter.

There was a brief back-and-forth. Mayumi continued to cry. It was difficult to understand what she was saying. Richard yelled some more. The moment reminded me of the video the Heenes made of their balloon floating away, when Richard yelled at Mayumi and kicked the wooden launch pad. According to Mayumi’s notes, all of that had been an elaborate ruse. Now, it appeared, they were doing it again, this time for an audience of one.

Heene's not getting a reality show. He's getting old. There's only one thing left for him and he needs to do it quick before people forget about him completely. He needs to write a book. Admit to everything. He HAS to admit to everything or it won't be long enough. He already pled guilty. They can't do anything to him now. He's paid his debt to society. Now society can pay HIM a few bucks.

He'd rather clutch at straws than pick up the pile of money practically lying at his feet.