Or is it just a balloon?
As millions of people all over the world watched Richard Heene’s weather balloon float across Colorado skies on Thursday, October 19, everyone expected Richard and Mayumi’s son, Falcon, to be on board the craft. After hours of searching for and capturing the balloon, authorities found that the boy was not inside the balloon at all. He was in the garage attic of his own home. Everyone is very relieved that he is safe but, after some investigation, the possibility that this was an elaborate hoax seems probable. The family had already been on reality TV before, the boy made a comment in an interview that could prove as evidence to support the hoax theory, the father may have already had plans to perform a hoax with a weather balloon, and the balloon could not have lifted with Falcon inside. I believe that the boy in the balloon story was a serious cry for attention.
The first piece of evidence against them is that the Heene family was used to being on reality TV. They participated in the show Wife Swap, which is on ABC, and enjoyed being in the spotlight enough to propose an idea to TLC for a new reality show, which TLC denied. The Heenes liked to be on TV.
The second suspicious item is a quote from Falcon Heene, the boy who was supposedly in the balloon. It is taken from an interview with CNN’s “Larry King Live” the evening following the incident. Mr. Heene asked his son why he hid in the attic even when he could hear people calling his name, when everyone was looking for him. To this question, the six year old answered, "You guys said we did this for the show." No one is really sure what this answer means exactly but I think it points towards the possibility of a staged performance by the parents.
Another strange thought to ponder is a quote from a man named Robert Thomas who wrote an article about Richard Heene for Gawker.com, a gossip website. Mr. Heene chases storms and records his chasing on video. He is sort of like a meteorologist but his schooling goes no farther than a high school diploma. Thomas stated that, in a conversation with Heene about the Roswell UFO incident, Heene said that it would be easy to create "a media stunt that would be equally profound as Roswell, and we could do so with nothing more than a weather balloon and some controversy." Of course, this is just he-said/ he-said but it’s something to think about.
The final evidence that leads me to believe this was a hoax is that the weather balloon that supposedly took off with the boy inside it could not have left the ground. The dimensions of the balloon that Mr. Heene gave the police showed that a 37 pound boy could have floated along easily but when the actual balloon was measured, it was not big enough to carry Falcon. The balloon could not have gotten loose if the boy was inside it because the boy was too heavy and Mr. Heen lied about it by presenting false information to the authorities. I think it is possible that Mr. Heen knew all along that the boy was not inside the weather balloon.
I truly believe that because the Heene family liked attention from cameras, the little boy said the were doing this “for the show,” there may have been premeditation, and the boy was not in the balloon when it took off, that this whole situation was planned to attract worldwide attention. It worked.
As millions of people all over the world watched Richard Heene’s weather balloon float across Colorado skies on Thursday, October 19, everyone expected Richard and Mayumi’s son, Falcon, to be on board the craft. After hours of searching for and capturing the balloon, authorities found that the boy was not inside the balloon at all. He was in the garage attic of his own home. Everyone is very relieved that he is safe but, after some investigation, the possibility that this was an elaborate hoax seems probable. The family had already been on reality TV before, the boy made a comment in an interview that could prove as evidence to support the hoax theory, the father may have already had plans to perform a hoax with a weather balloon, and the balloon could not have lifted with Falcon inside. I believe that the boy in the balloon story was a serious cry for attention.
The first piece of evidence against them is that the Heene family was used to being on reality TV. They participated in the show Wife Swap, which is on ABC, and enjoyed being in the spotlight enough to propose an idea to TLC for a new reality show, which TLC denied. The Heenes liked to be on TV.
The second suspicious item is a quote from Falcon Heene, the boy who was supposedly in the balloon. It is taken from an interview with CNN’s “Larry King Live” the evening following the incident. Mr. Heene asked his son why he hid in the attic even when he could hear people calling his name, when everyone was looking for him. To this question, the six year old answered, "You guys said we did this for the show." No one is really sure what this answer means exactly but I think it points towards the possibility of a staged performance by the parents.
Another strange thought to ponder is a quote from a man named Robert Thomas who wrote an article about Richard Heene for Gawker.com, a gossip website. Mr. Heene chases storms and records his chasing on video. He is sort of like a meteorologist but his schooling goes no farther than a high school diploma. Thomas stated that, in a conversation with Heene about the Roswell UFO incident, Heene said that it would be easy to create "a media stunt that would be equally profound as Roswell, and we could do so with nothing more than a weather balloon and some controversy." Of course, this is just he-said/ he-said but it’s something to think about.
The final evidence that leads me to believe this was a hoax is that the weather balloon that supposedly took off with the boy inside it could not have left the ground. The dimensions of the balloon that Mr. Heene gave the police showed that a 37 pound boy could have floated along easily but when the actual balloon was measured, it was not big enough to carry Falcon. The balloon could not have gotten loose if the boy was inside it because the boy was too heavy and Mr. Heen lied about it by presenting false information to the authorities. I think it is possible that Mr. Heen knew all along that the boy was not inside the weather balloon.
I truly believe that because the Heene family liked attention from cameras, the little boy said the were doing this “for the show,” there may have been premeditation, and the boy was not in the balloon when it took off, that this whole situation was planned to attract worldwide attention. It worked.
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