CO - Richard & Mayumi Heene charged in Balloon Boy hoax, Fort Collins, 2009 - #1

[Kimster]

If my ears do not deceive me, Mr. Heene claims that on the tape you can see Falcon climb into the jiffy pop thing. Hoo boy.

That's what he said!

 

[Kimster]

Not long after the incident ended, questions about whether or not the incident was a hoax and publicity stunt surfaced, and were driven by Falcon's comment on CNN's "Larry King Live" that the family did it, quote, "for the show." Alderden said that comment was the "ah-ha" moment for investigators, and they began investigating it as a hoax.<snipped>

http://arkansasmatters.com/content/news/fulltext?cid=264022

This is why I want the wife and kids taken to a safe house. Reports like these might fuel Heene's explosive temper and I fear what might happen!!!

 

[STEADFAST]

SNIPPED
"He's a great kid," Friedland said of Falcon. "We see him a lot and they come over and they're always friendly."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/15/colorado.boy.balloon/index.html

IMO He was lying. Anyone who spent more than 10 minutes with that obnoxious child could not walk away and and say he's a "great kid." Or call the rest of them a "great family"

The neighbor could hardly say, "He was an obnoxious child" and "the family is terrible," while the boy was missing! I wonder what the neighbor says now. I do agree with you that it's hard to believe the neighbors would welcome having those rambunctious, foul-mouthed boys visit their homes.

 

[Muffet]

Oh my gosh! I've watched a few episodes of "Wife Swap" and never saw THAT happen before, that's for sure! So he couldn't even maintain control with cameras on him for a two week period of time?

Me thinks his wife and kids need a safety shelter!!!

Even more disturbing is that, of all the dads in that season, viewers voted this creep back onto the "wife swap island," or however it works. :no:

 

[Kimster]

Even more disturbing is that, of all the dads in that season, viewers voted this creep back onto the "wife swap island," or however it works. :no:

Oh my gosh! I didn't even know about that! I'd never heard about that before. I've just caught a few episodes of the regular "Wife Swap".

 

[WhyaDuck?]

Omg, this guy is not a scientist or intellegent. He's an overgrown 5th grade bully.

Gosh, he reminds me of that movie that Harrison Ford was in. The name escapes me at the moment. Anyone remember that movie?

Do you mean Regarding Henry?

 

[Elphaba]

This guy is so arrogant and self-assured that I think he is probably enjoying the spotlight, regardless of how bad it is. He's that nutty, IMO.

 

[Muffet]

Not long after the incident ended, questions about whether or not the incident was a hoax and publicity stunt surfaced, and were driven by Falcon's comment on CNN's "Larry King Live" that the family did it, quote, "for the show." Alderden said that comment was the "ah-ha" moment for investigators, and they began investigating it as a hoax.<snipped>

http://arkansasmatters.com/content/news/fulltext?cid=264022

This is why I want the wife and kids taken to a safe house. Reports like these might fuel Heene's explosive temper and I fear what might happen!!!

BBM
That doesn't quite mesh with his saying they were already suspicious of him and just didn't want to let on, does it?

Kinda thinking this sheriff needs to stop yakkin' so much...

 

[Spawngasm]

Was anyone watching FOX news earlier? they seem mad about the sheriff lying to the media and public. There was also an attorney on there saying that those kids weren't in any danger during storm chases. I decided to turn the channel after listening to his crap, he seemed to be on Richard Heene's side.

 

[SuziQ]

Do you mean Regarding Henry?

I finally remembered the name. Good movie.

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito_Coast[/ame]

Plot summary
The Mosquito Coast is an adventure story of a family that leaves the United States and tries to find a happier and simpler life in the jungles of Central America. The father, Allie Fox, is an individualist who is disgusted by modern American culture and wants to live a more "genuine" life. However, their jungle paradise quickly turns into a [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia"]dystopia[/ame] as their stubborn father's behavior becomes increasingly erratic and aggressive.
The story is told by his fourteen year old son Charlie, who observes his father with a mixture of love, horror, and astonishment. He describes the voyage, the trip into the interior, and his father&#8217;s invention of a giant ice-making machine (dubbed "[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Boy"]Fat Boy[/ame]").

ETA: lol, I see it got rotten reviews. But I liked the movie. The storyline was good.

 

[Muffet]

The neighbor could hardly say, "He was an obnoxious child" and "the family is terrible," while the boy was missing! I wonder what the neighbor says now. I do agree with you that it's hard to believe the neighbors would welcome having those rambunctious, foul-mouthed boys visit their homes.

Yeah, saying that about the little boy was understandable, at least while he was in danger. It's his persistently hailing the father as a great dad that's bothersome.

 

[WhyaDuck?]

I finally remembered the name. Good movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito_Coast

Plot summary
The Mosquito Coast is an adventure story of a family that leaves the United States and tries to find a happier and simpler life in the jungles of Central America. The father, Allie Fox, is an individualist who is disgusted by modern American culture and wants to live a more "genuine" life. However, their jungle paradise quickly turns into a dystopia as their stubborn father's behavior becomes increasingly erratic and aggressive.
The story is told by his fourteen year old son Charlie, who observes his father with a mixture of love, horror, and astonishment. He describes the voyage, the trip into the interior, and his father’s invention of a giant ice-making machine (dubbed "Fat Boy").

My mistake - Regarding Henry is about an awkward who gets in an accident and becomes an awkward man with a child's brain... you can see how I thought it might apply, as well.

 

[mycroft]

If there was a basket attached then it would have been clear the boy wasn't in it. And his story was that he didn't know balloon boy was in the balloon until the older kid told him after a take off that balloon boy was in the balloon, so that video would make sense if you believe the story the father came up with.

IIRC, his initial story was that there was a basket attached that the kid had crawled into and the parents were indoors for the launch when they saw it float off and then the older brother said Falcon had crawled on board. I think the video completely undermines his story such that I wonder why he made it, aside from clearly being insane. When I look at the balloon launch, I don't see what looks like anyplace where a person could hide. It looks like a sealed container of helium to me. I can see why it might have appeared different to LE looking up in the air in the moment, but on tape it's clearly a balloon.

 

[SuziQ]

My mistake - Regarding Henry is about an awkward who gets in an accident and becomes an awkward man with a child's brain... you can see how I thought it might apply, as well.

LMAO, I can definitely see that.

 

[passionflower]

criminal, delinquency of a minor and felony count just said on HLN

 

[Muffet]

Was anyone watching FOX news earlier? they seem mad about the sheriff lying to the media and public. There was also an attorney on there saying that said those kids weren't in any danger during storm chases. I decided to turn the channel after listening to his crap, he seemed to be on Richard Heene's side.

The sheriff does seem to have spoken more than he needed to.

As for the atty's comment (BBM), he sounds like the neighbor. From the article Buzziecat linked to:

Still, Slusser said she and Scott Stevens, a Fort Collins man ... quit working with Heene not because of his temper but because Heene always insisted on bringing his children along for storm-chasing expeditions.

-snip-

"Hurricane Gustav was where I drew the line," Slusser said. "By then, Scott had already left our group."

Heene brought his family along to shoot video of the eye of Hurricane Gustav and even submitted the video to CNN through iReport, a citizen journalism Web site. ...

"He always wanted his children to experience everything he did," Slusser said, adding that the boys would sleep in their clothes in case they had to wake up in the middle of the night to chase a storm. "There were no limits to what Richard himself would do, but he always brought his kids along."

The family's minivan, which is parked in the front yard, bears the scars of their storm-chasing trips - a broken-out back window and a hood pock-marked with hail dents.
​

 

[Capri]

Not long after the incident ended, questions about whether or not the incident was a hoax and publicity stunt surfaced, and were driven by Falcon's comment on CNN's "Larry King Live" that the family did it, quote, "for the show." Alderden said that comment was the "ah-ha" moment for investigators, and they began investigating it as a hoax.<snipped>

http://arkansasmatters.com/content/news/fulltext?cid=264022

This is why I want the wife and kids taken to a safe house. Reports like these might fuel Heene's explosive temper and I fear what might happen!!!

I agree with you Kimster, but no one can force her. The sheriff's office tried. She didn't want to go into protective custody.

"We talked to her at length about domestic violence, about her safety, about her children's safety," the sheriff said. "We have a concern, but we didn't have enough that would allow us or child protective services to physically take the kids from that environment."

 

[STEADFAST]

I finally remembered the name. Good movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito_Coast

Plot summary
The Mosquito Coast is an adventure story of a family that leaves the United States and tries to find a happier and simpler life in the jungles of Central America. The father, Allie Fox, is an individualist who is disgusted by modern American culture and wants to live a more "genuine" life. However, their jungle paradise quickly turns into a dystopia as their stubborn father's behavior becomes increasingly erratic and aggressive.
The story is told by his fourteen year old son Charlie, who observes his father with a mixture of love, horror, and astonishment. He describes the voyage, the trip into the interior, and his father’s invention of a giant ice-making machine (dubbed "Fat Boy").

ETA: lol, I see it got rotten reviews. But I liked the movie. The storyline was good.

That movie was based on the excellent book of the same name by Paul Theroux. As usual, the book was much better, but I liked the movie, too. (And I usually hate movie adaptations.) You can see by the reviews on Amazon that the character of Allie Fox is very similar to Whateverhisfirstnameis Heene's.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Coast-Paul-Theroux/dp/0140060898"]Amazon.com: The Mosquito Coast (9780140060898): Paul Theroux: Books[/ame]

 

[Muffet]

Oh my gosh! I didn't even know about that! I'd never heard about that before. I've just caught a few episodes of the regular "Wife Swap".

Same here, Kimster. lol

There's a youtube clip from his appearance, ...Hmmm... I just went to get the link to it, but it now says it's "unavailable due to copyright claims by ABC."

ETA: here's a working clip, and it is of the second appearance: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr_zA5E7n7A"]YouTube - Balloon Boy on Wife Swap[/ame]

Here's a mention of the Wife Swap vote thingie:

Balloon boy's family adventures include 'Wife Swap'; dad Richard Heene wants to meet 'real aliens'

In their first appearance on the show, they were paired with The Martels, a safety-conscious Connecticut family. They were voted back by popular demand for the show's 100th episode and swapped with the Silvers, a psychic family from Florida.​

I wonder if his first appearance was as obnoxious as the return appearance... Does anyone know which ones were which?

 

[mycroft]

You mean the one neighbor who was yapping on and on about how for-sure-real-and-not-a-hoax it was ? heh

I was wondering about the 25 yr old dude who said that he helped create the plan awhile back while working with Heene or something to that effect. But if he never intended for it to be carried out, and was not actively involved in this, would he be at risk for charges? Plus, I'd think that it was his coming forward nay have helped nail Heene. He didn't HAVE to say anything, but he did. Just wondering.

[ETA - I edited out some sutff about the possible conspiracy allegations against possibly the former assistant and the press - that's what I was referring to below]

I couldn't make any sense of that either unless they aren't referring to the assistant.

I wonder if it was just speculation. This family is in no position to hire top counsel (although they could get it free) and the evidence seems quite strong. For a guy who didn't see this for a hoax at the jump, picking a legal fight with the press is a pretty big leap.