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By admin, October 19, 2009 5:22 pm

Balloon boy and his story has taken the world by storm.  His events lead to a frantic craze over him and put him in almost every newscast.  His story started at approximately  11 am  on October  15th 2009 when a  Balloon is accidentally released from the Heene home on Fossil Ridge Drive near Fort Collins, Colo.  A home video later released shows a distraught mother and upset father as the balloon lifts into the air from the back yard. Three minutes later his father called the police that the balloon launched and that the boy may be inside.

Soon later his dad called the media asking for a helicopter to track the balloons whereabouts.  The drama did not end there as more and more people became aware of what was happening and soon after even the coast guard got in on the action.  The balloon was later spotted in the air but there was still one major concern , how do you even get the balloon down.

Balloon boy was later found safe at home.  He was apparently there the whole time. He was hiding in a cardboard box in the attic above the garage. However  this whole dramatic story turned out to be a huge hoax. The parents lied about the whole thing to improve their so called chances to get their own reality show about their lives as mad scientist.  It is pretty sad that someone would do this to their own child just for their own fifteen minutes of fame.

Balloon boy 2

The Balloon boy saga continues with the news that the whole thing was a hoax.  According to numerous sites it was actually a publicity stunt intended to get the family a reality-television show, but instead the family could get slapped with felony charges, authorities said Sunday.  Sherrif Jim Alderden was heard saying at a press conference that the boy's parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, had planned the pathetic  scheme for at least two weeks before launching the homemade balloon Thursday and starting the Balloon Boy drama. Alderden said his office was likely to recommend that the parents be charged with felonies. What is most surprising is that they may have had help, even from some entertainment media.

This isn’t the first time the family has been on the television, the couple has twice appeared on the ABC reality show "Wife Swap. They had also discussed a reality show with the production company of that show.
The possible charges that balloon boys family can face carry maximum penalties of six years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

They can also be billed for the rescue operation, which included the sheriff's departments of three counties, two Air National Guard helicopters and the rerouting of flights from Denver International Airport but these cost have not yet been tallied. It has been said that it's unlikely the Heenes will serve prison time, given that this apparently would be their first offense and that Colorado, amid a severe budget crunch, is releasing even violent offenders early from prison.  So hopefully the balloon boy is handed over to a good family for a while his parents go under some serious testing.

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An artist's impression of Edgar Allan Poe's aerial machine, the Victoria Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images