The saga that gripped the nation is lookin' to be an elaborate sham
Okay, so by now you have surely heard about a little 6 year old boy named Falcon Heene who was said to have flown away in a balloon, which set off an expensive search and rescue … only to turn out that the little boy was never in the balloon in the first place and was hiding in a box in the attic of his home:
The story started out humorous … then turned serious out of concern for the boy … then turned joyous once he was found safe and sound … and has now turned into very shady biz. Appearing on Larry King Live on CNN last night, mere moments after the boy was found unharmed, little Falcon was asked by guest host Wolf Blitzer why he didn’t come out of the attic when his parents called out his name looking for him. The little boy, with what looked to be a childlike innocence to tell the truth, admitted on live TV that his parents instructed him to hide because they were “doing it for ‘the show’” prompting his father to fidget and attempt to change the subject. Then this morning, the entire Heene family appeared on The Today Show and while his father was telling the story for the umpteenth millionth time, Falcon actually puked in his father’s lap … apparently even he is sick of hearing this story. So … was it a real incident or was it a hoax?
It was, apparently, a heartwarming tale — the 6-year-old Colorado boy who was reportedly carried aloft in a wayward helium balloon on Thursday, only to turn up several hours later after a frantic, widely televised search. Falcon Heene, fearful of being punished for messing around with his father’s balloon, had been hiding out above the garage at the family’s home in Fort Collins, Colo., his parents said. But on Thursday evening, after Falcon and his family appeared on CNN, discussion of the event online turned skeptical. The suspicions began after the family was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer — in the segment embedded below — and the young boy said that he had heard people in the house calling his name but had not responded because, he said to his parents, “You guys said… that, um, we did this for the show.” After Mr. Heene angrily denied that his son was admitting that the whole thing was a hoax, Mr. Blitzer quickly retreated, perhaps fearing that he would be accused of engaging in what is called “Gotcha journalism” with a six-year-old, saying, “I don’t want you to misunderstand, just asking the question doesn’t mean, Richard, that we are suggesting anything untoward or anything like that — we’re just thrilled that Falcon is alive and well.” He added, “I got to tell you personally, as a reporter who reported that he was alive and well, it was a thrilling moment for me.” People inclined to believe that Thursday’s balloon drama was a publicity stunt will want to see this raw video of Richard Heene explaining his “experiment” to reporters on Thursday night. In the video, published by 9news.com, the Web site of a Colorado television news station, Mr. Heene explained that his whole family was present when he launched the balloon and that he hopes that his invention can one day be used by commuters instead of cars. “It’s a low-altitude vehicle,” he said, “and we’re working on a way to perhaps get rid of modern vehicles, so we can just levitate, and go to work at fifty to a hundred feet, to and from work. And this works off a million volts to move horizontally. It uses helium to levitate, much like a blimp.” Then, after appearing to struggle with his emotions while recounting for the press the moment when one of his sons, Bradford, told him that his brother Falcon was inside the experimental vehicle when it took off, Mr. Heene regained his composure and thanked the media “for being kind to me.” One reporter then asked Mr. Heene what he thought his son meant when he told CNN he had hidden out for so long because it was “for the show.” Mr. Heene blamed the media for asking the local police about what he called “this publicity stunt crap.” He added that after “everything that I went through, everything my wife has gone through, I just find that just disgusting, its absolutely appalling to me, after all the crap that we went through, that they would say that. Getting back on track, Falcon is the key thing [...] what I heard him say was something about you guys asking the same question about the attic [...] so I thought he was talking about, when the garage door opened up and all the media was standing there and he was showing them how he got in.” At the very end of the news conference Mr. Heene — who called the 9news television channel for help on Thursday when he said he feared his son was floating away in the craft — told reporters that his family doesn’t watch television and “quite frankly for me its been a luxury not to have cable TV” … After the CNN interview on Thursday, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden told The Associated Press that the boy’s comment on TV “has raised some questions.” “Our personnel who were dealing with the family all day are convinced this is a legitimate incident and this is not a hoax,” Mr. Alderden told The A.P. But with Falcon’s remark about “the show,” he said his investigators would “go back and further ask the family to cooperate with our investigation through answering more questions and resolve this issue” … On Friday morning, the family members appeared tired and emotional and on the “Today” show on NBC, Falcon vomited on camera.
The Heene family, who claim they don’t watch TV, have appeared on at least one reality TV show — Wife Swap. It’s entirely likely that this whole thing was staged. If you watch video of the interviews, you see that Richard Heene (the father) never really looks into the camera … his nervous and fidgety manner really makes it seem like he is not being truthful. The mother, Mayumi Heene, never offers anything of value and just seems to be going along with the circus. This entire matter seems so shady to me … especially considering that the entire thing was set in motion because the Heene family called the police (click HERE to hear the 911 call) and told them their child flew away in a flying saucer!!!! HELLOOOOOO!!!! After the jump, check out clips of the Heene family on Larry King Live and The Today Show — you make the call if they are lying on camera or not …
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