Richard and Mayumi Heene, met with Larimer County investigators Saturday afternoon amid lingering questions about whether he perpetrated a publicity stunt involving the desperate search and rescue fiasco aimed at saving their six year old Falcon Heene.
(That was not even on board the balloon.)
In Fort Collins Colorado, The Sheriff Deputies searched the home of the Heene family Saturday night after the heartless "Balloon Boy saga" came to an end. The Sheriff declared he would be pursuing criminal charges against someone , but declined to put forth a name.
It certainly is my belief that this was a sham!
With no regard for the community, the Heene family led the local search and rescue volunteers to believe that the six year old Falcon Heene, was in Grave danger, if not already severely injured or even dead. Then carried on this escapade for 5-6 hours while young Falcon Heene hid in the garage attic, inside a cardboard box. Then later, during an interview with CNN , when asked why Falcon did not come out of the box when he heard his name being called, Falcon turned to his father and said"You said we did this for a show!"
The home made helium balloon traveled over two and a half hours across the Colorado desert at altitudes of up to 7000 feet. A search and Rescue team was dispatched based on a statement put forth by Falcon Heene's older brother. In this statement the young Heene child had told his mother that Falcon had gone with the balloon, he had seen young Falcon climb into the balloon.
People all across America tuned in and watched, what they believed to be a boy, inside a bright , shiny helium balloon. Fearing for the boy , full of uncertainty, and able to relate to the feelings brought on by such a loss, I barely held back the tears. The tears of sadness, because I did not think the child would survive within a sealed balloon full of helium. I thought for sure he would be dead when they found the balloon.
Then , for a slight moment as the rescue vehicles traveled through a farmer's freshly plowed field, closing in on the homemade craft, came an ounce of hope, for everybody watching from home and rescuers on the ground. I fought back the tears of joy as the craft started to come within reach of rescuers.
I thought to myself as the craft made the most graceful landing;
"How long can a person breath helium and live?"I even wondered if two hours of breathing would replace the air with toxic air.
Watching the search and rescue team secure the balloon, It became evident that the child was no longer with the balloon. It took them several minutes to get the balloon where it would stay grounded, and as they did the urgency to remove the child from the balloon did not seem to be there. The cardboard door was ajar as the craft landed, and the police on the scene did not have young Falcon Heene there.
Again, I had to hold back the tears of sorrow. News casters jumping to the conclusion that the boy had to of fallen out of the balloon. Up until that point, the fact that there was a basket below the balloon was not made clear to all of the people looking. There was an eyewitness claiming that they had seen a dark object falling from the balloon, near its point of lift off. Again, the American public had to hold back the tears. Originally the credibility of the eyewitness was under fire, until it was verified that the eye witness was, an actual Sheriff's Deputy.
I am still trying to understand why it was that Richard Heene did not make the design of the balloon perfectly clear, to the search and Rescue team, at the time of the reported accidental lift off. This in itself caused great turmoil among the minds of the search and rescue teams, the news casters and John Q Public.
I have come to the point where I feel Richard and his wife had cried WOLF. The Heene family, under the direction of Richard Heene, preyed on the compassion of the American public. They concocted this extravagant plan. Planning with the full intention of using news cameras , radio talk shows, and internet traffic to gain notoriety , popularity, fortune and fame to themselves. Not only did they continue to do so at the taxpayers expense, but also at the emotional expense of the American public.
All of this they brought forth under the false pretense of eminent danger to their own flesh and blood , an innocent six year old child, that is only guilty of following the orders handed down to him by his Father.
Deputies searched the home of the Heene family on Saturday night, after the sheriff said he was pursuing criminal charges in a case that at first sparked fear for the child, then relief he was okay, then suspicions of a hoax. (I thought it was a hoax before I knew for sure he was okay, but we aren't tasteless enough to say things like that until the boy was proven safe at home.)
The Sheriff did however vent some frustration that, even with the search and rescue, and the military involved, what we basically have is a class 3 misdemeanor. Although they are looking to the federal government to see if there are any federal charges that can be drawn. Officials did remove several cardboard boxes of undisclosed items and a computer from the Heene family home, upon serving a search warrant Saturday evening.
Myself and millions of taxpayers got to watch their tax dollars being spent on fuel for helicopters, SUV's, and planes to save a child from the exploits of his father.
Alderden didn't call Thursday's hours-long drama a hoax, but I sure as hell believe there is something FISHY going on here. he expressed disappointment that he couldn't level more serious charges in the incident, which sent police and the military scrambling to save young Falcon Heene as millions of worried television viewers watched.
Heene, a storm chaser and inventor whose family has appeared on the reality show "Wife Swap," and his wife had said one of the boy's older brothers had said Falcon was aboard the homemade balloon when it took off. That is what got this party started!
Alderden initially said there was no reason to believe the incident was a hoax. Authorities questioned the Heenes again after Falcon turned to his dad stating that it was all for the show.
The Heenes have said the balloon was supposed to be tethered to the ground when it lifted off, and no one was supposed to be aboard. A video of the launch shows the family counting down in unison, "3, 2, 1," before Richard Heene pulls a cord, setting the balloon into the air. Then shows Richard busting out a cuss word about the lack of the tether, and kicking the wooden stand where the balloon once stood. But hey, maybe that is how all of this had to play out, in order to get all of that free, high stress, publicity the United States taxpayers want to see.
