Sheriff Prepares Charges in Balloon Boy Case
[Guest post by DRJ]
The Larimer County, Colorado, Sheriff’s office interviewed the parents of 6-year-old Falcon Henne, the flying saucer balloon boy, for several hours today and then announced it is preparing search warrants and charges in the case.
Meanwhile, Gawker claims Henne discussed with a former assistant a plan to manufacture a UFO controversy to gain publicity for Henne’s ideas. The assistant also claimed Heene’s attic is “too small and difficult to access for a small child to hide in without assistance” and that “Falcon was the most social, and that those kids never got disciplined” so Falcon’s story that he ran away after being disciplined is not credible. But keep in mind that Gawker acknowledged it compensated the assistant for his story.
— DRJ
That sheriff is looking for a heap of trouble. It’s every Coloradoan’s inalienable right to be a post-date hippie asshole screwing the system and his fellow citizens for whatever it’s worth.
nk (df76d4) — 10/17/2009 @ 8:36 pmI think the video may have forced the Sheriff to do more.
DRJ (f462b4) — 10/17/2009 @ 8:38 pmI’ve been to Aspen twice for the music festival and the people there freaked me out a lot worse than Pontiac and Stateville (Illinois maximum security prisons).
nk (df76d4) — 10/17/2009 @ 8:39 pmI dislike paid source almost as much as anonymous sources.
People that volunteer to go on stupid reality tv shows (redundant, I know) a prone to these kind of events. It is simply a matter of time.
JD (c5afb1) — 10/17/2009 @ 8:59 pmI’ve been wondering what kinds of charges they might file. I can think of two: releasing a hazard into control air space (violation of FAA regs) and making a false call to 911.
Steven Den Beste (99cfa1) — 10/17/2009 @ 10:30 pmApparently they are considering local, state and federal charges:
DRJ (f462b4) — 10/17/2009 @ 11:06 pmI think the video may have forced the Sheriff to do more.
Comment by DRJ — 10/17/2009 @ 8:38 pm
I agree.
My gut reaction was to think that Heene is a publicity-seeking tool dragging his wife and family along in his Tennessee Tuxedo-like search for fame and glory, but I was willing to keep an open mind. When I saw the footage of Heene’s appearance on Wife Swap profanely browbeating his guest wife, I thought there might be some credibility to the idea that Falcon crawled into an attic to get away from the jackass.
Then, in an attempt at damage control, Heene released the video of the balloon being released. This gave me my first close-up look at the thing, and it just raised more questions. Looking at the way the thing was anchored down and seeing the size of the compartment at the bottom, it stretches the imagination to think that (1) Falcon could somehow have crawled underneath the apparatus anchoring the thing to crawl inside, (2) That a helium-filled object of that size could rise to 10,000 feet with a preschooler aboard, and, most importantly, (3) it doesn’t appear that the craft was designed with a door or hatch that Falcon could have possibly securely closed behind himself.
That last part is crucial; IMHO, unless it can be shown Heene designed the thing with the intent that a tiny passenger could be safely transported in it, he knew darn well that Falcon was not inside it.
My theory is this: Heene had intended all along to create a phony UFO incident for whatever reason (maybe to sell exclusive video footage and promote his previously-stated crackpot E.T. theories), and that the newly-released video was of a test flight gone awry; after all, I don’t think Heene intended for the world to see him verbally abusing his own wife the way he did his temporary TV one. Once the thing got airborne and out of control, they had to think of a way to make lemons out of a lemonade situation, and they decided to squirrel Falcon away inside the home and pretend that he had somehow stowed himself aboard the runaway balloon.
That’s my best guess with what I know to be true. I haven’t been following this that closely because nobody got hurt, and even if Heene is the orifice I think he is, the court of public opinion will punish him more than the law will.
L.N. Smithee (166a4a) — 10/18/2009 @ 12:58 amWasn’t there a famous case in recent history where a Colorado sheriff’s dept failed to ever discern the truth of what exactly happened?
Icy Texan (6fdd44) — 10/18/2009 @ 1:17 amWasn’t there a famous case in recent history where a Colorado sheriff’s dept failed to ever discern the truth of what exactly happened during the time in question?
Icy Texan (6fdd44) — 10/18/2009 @ 1:18 amWasn’t there a famous case in recent history where a Colorado sheriff’s dept failed to ever discern the truth of what exactly happened during the time in question?
Yeah. J.B.R. I hope someday we’ll find out the entire truth about that.
L.N. Smithee (166a4a) — 10/18/2009 @ 1:24 amI see this as a very important story about how easy it is for the rpess to be played by grifters. We live in an Image Uber Alles culture. A picture is allegedly worth a thousand waord. But it most cases it’s scarcely worthy of one. Yet images are what propel TV news. “We’re here live!” they scream at us as they’re doing nothing more than standing in front of building, generlally a court house, access to which they’ve been denied.
The grifters knew that image of floating UFO like balloon would work beautifully on the tube. The plan was to create a story that would launch them into their own “Reality Show.” Jon and Kate are Kaputt and these creeps want to take over.
May this episode hasten an end to “reality” and spur a renewed interest in FACTS!
David Ehrenstein (2550d9) — 10/18/2009 @ 11:18 amPersonally, I think Lawnchair Larry was a more interesting case. He was charged with interfering with an airport air control zone and could have been charged with exceeding maximum altitude without oxygen.
Plus, of course, he was really in the thing. I think he retired the Darwin Award.
Mike K (2cf494) — 10/18/2009 @ 11:24 amI think Lawnchair Larry got an Honorary Darwin, because the stunt didn’t kill him. He did kill himself years later, however.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 10/18/2009 @ 11:28 amWell, Bradley, some Darwin awards are for non-fatal incidents. Like the guy who was being inducted into an outdoorsmen’s club. They were supposed to shoot an apple off his head with a bow and arrow. When the arrow was removed from his right eye, he was alive but deserved the award, nonetheless.
A full Darwin does remove the awardee from the gene pool, though.
Mike K (2cf494) — 10/18/2009 @ 12:00 pmMy theory is this: Heene had intended all along to create a phony UFO incident for whatever reason
That wouldn’t have been as bad. Actually, it apparently was Heene’s attempt to squeeze a few more seconds out of his 15 minutes of fame — above and beyond his having already appeared on a TV reality show — and enlisting the help of his kids in the process. What’s pathetic is the fool tried to get cheap publicity that, as it turns out, was so cheap even his young son, when interviewed on live TV, was unrehearsed and therefore honest enough to admit he had been instructed to hide away.
Mark (411533) — 10/18/2009 @ 12:38 pmApparently the sheriff is calling it a definite hoax
no one you know (1ebbb1) — 10/18/2009 @ 12:41 pmnow.
They are now talking about felony charges according to AOL.
Knew it was a hoax, and I’m glad they got caught. What I don’t understand is apparently they already had plans with ABC for a reality show, according to an article I read, so why would they push for more publicity if they were already going to get publicity from their new show? Weird.
I do love the kid puking on The Today Show, that was classic.
Audacity (2fd5ad) — 10/18/2009 @ 2:48 pmmy wife and i had a good laugh about the guy this weekeend. they revealed that this guy is a major nutcase. he not only believes that aliens exist, but that reptilian shapeshifting creatures have replaced people in power… “Including Nancy Pelosi.” I told my wife.
My wife chewed it over. “Actually that last part seems really plausible. I mean, her face doesn’t move anymore.”
Yes, she meant that in jest.
A.W. (b1db52) — 10/19/2009 @ 6:06 am