Sucks. I wonder if it's possible that the kid was never in the balloon and ran away and hid when he released the tether, for fear of getting in trouble?
To me this just sounds too much like what a 6 year old would do. I really hope he wasn't in the basket, but I would think that after a couple of hours they'd be able to find him. On the other hand I've seen kids disappear for hours and then people find them playing video games somewhere. Sure hope that's the case.
On a possible bright note, since he wasn't in the balloon there's actually a chance of him still being found alive. If he had been in the balloon, he most likely would have frozen to death, or suffocated.
"At this point, we are thinking that he did not fall out of the balloon and is somewhere on the ground," Larimer County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Eloise Campanella said. "The basket itself was not breached. It does not look like he fell out of it, but again, this is all conjecture."
I'm starting to have bad thoughts about the parents, seeing as they are ex-reality stars and all. I dunno.
This message has been edited by mevin on Oct 15, 2009 6:17 PM This message has been edited by mevin on Oct 15, 2009 6:16 PM This message has been edited by mevin on Oct 15, 2009 6:15 PM
Assuming the parents didn't have anything to do with it, I can't imagine anything worse than watching a balloon speed through the sky and thinking your kid is in it possibly suffocating or freezing to death.
I don't know if I would actually spank him, but hiding out of fear of punishment for letting loose a giant balloon filled with helium which caused a major airport to shut down and the national guard to get involved strikes me as unaccaptable behavior.
I think his brothers did it actually. Sounds like he started to climb in, got in trouble and ran. Then one of his brother probably decided to get him in further trouble by letting the thing go and saying Falcon was in it.
A family that creates sensational balloon boy fiascoes together, stays together
Well, I disagree Aurora. I don't think it's right to teach kids it's ok to do something wrong, then try and hide/lie/cover it up. I hope if I ever have children, I teach them that the right thing to do is to own up to what you did. But you're correct in that I don't know he let it loose, I just made that assumption based on the fact he hid. It's evidence of consciousness of guilt.
Five things make me certain the entire thing was a hoax planned by the parents.
1 - on CNN tonight when the kid was asked why he hid so long, he said "We did it for the show"
2 - When the father was asked to explain what the kid said, he went all deer-in-the-headlights then got really defensive
3 - When the balloon flew away, who did the father call? The local NBC affiliate news channel
4 - The kid said he went and got some toys and snacks for hiding in the attic. WHAT? no one noticed?
5 - I've got a 6 year old. I have yet to see one that is capable of hiding quietly for 5 hours without needing to go to the bathroom, getting bored, or otherwise ending the game. It's simply not a reasonable thing to believe.
Now here's the part that I don't quite understand, but I REALLY want those parents to get the book throw at them for perpetrating this hoax. Attention whores should never be rewarded.
I'm not entirely sure why I feel so strongly about it, other than I felt so strongly sad and worried that a little kid might plummet do his death as a result of his parents stupidity. So, I guess I channel that energy into wanting those same parents to get drilled by the legal system.
Dad: Did you hear us calling your name at any time?
Falcon: Umm-hmm.
Dad: You did?
Mom: You did?
Dad: Then why didnt you come out?
Falcon: Um...you guys said...that, um...we did this for a show.
Dad: Yeah.
Mom: No.
Dad: Mmmm...
I'm guessing there will be some repercussions for causing an airport to shut down temporarily. Phony calls to emergency services are probably illegal too. (At least I hope they are)
I was seriously doubting the validity of this "accident" as soon as I read that the family had been on some wife swap reality show. The first thing I thought was publicity stunt.
I watched that! They were on Good Morning America and Diane Sawyer was asking him for his version of it after his dad tried to totally spin it and you could tell he had been coached to lie, and it wasn't sitting well with him. He went off camera to throw up, but they didnt remove his microphone, so you could hear him puke (3x!)
I felt really bad for the kid and that pretty much convinced me that the whole thing is a sham. He knows it's wrong, it's his asshole parents who need the beating. Not the poor kid.
It actually doesn't totally suck
This message has been edited by WesSmackey on Oct 16, 2009 10:35 AM
I don't see how you can watch the "we did it for a show" clip and not realize that it was a hoax. The Dad is quite obviously like, "oh shit". If it was just a kid being a kid, he would have been like laughing and saying, "what? What show did we do it for?"
He messed up. It was such a good hoax. He should have stepped back. Said he was embarrassed and wanted his privacy. Then gear up for Oprah or whatever. Don't slap your kid on TV all puking and stuff...
Come one people, this is America. You have to do whatever you can to get on TV and stay on TV. Balloon Boy was good TV. We should all write our congressmen and demand that October 15th be made a national holiday. Then every year we all go outside and release mylar party balloons, with precariously attached baskets and little Ken Dolls inside.
This message has been edited by mevin on Oct 16, 2009 3:07 PM
looks like criminal charges are imminent for the freakshow of a dad according to CNN.
I caught a bit of an earlier press conference where the dad shows up, hedges all questions and gets weird and evasive, then he waves a box around and tells reporters to come back later but they can leave their questions in the box.
I say they return and strap dad to the balloon and set him loose.
God bless the people at Today- Merideath not blinking an eye while a little 6 year old boy pukes on national television. The whole entertainment culture, the media, the dad- EVERYONE IS FUCKING INSANE.
I'm constantly amazed at the lengths people will go to get attention. Nevermind that the scumbag father is so attention starved that he is pestering every network he can think of to give him a show, but he actually coached his kids to lie to the police and everyone else about the circumstances regarding that stupido balloon.
Since the parents involved their children in the commission of their crimes, it's VERY likely that the children are going to end up in the foster care system. Hopefully the foster parents will try to teach the kids some values.
Oh, and the day after the wild ballon chase, I said this to my wife, "I can see no other reason a person would make a ballon that looks like that than to launch it and create a UFO hoax."
Well... it turns out that the UFO hoax was original plan. I doubt they would be facing jail time if they had managed to secretly launch their dumb ballon and then taken some pictures of it and called it a UFO.
LOL! They were all like cool with it when this guy was in a half nelson- but they all started shouting when the neighbor popped him??? OMFG! These news media people need to pull their heads out of their asses...
"You jumped me from behind?" WHACK, WHACK! That was great!
I'm glad the media guy got his face bashed a bit. I'm sorry that what seems to be an average citizen had to deal with his day to day life being disrupted. The media people (in this video) act as if they have more control of what goes on in life than any ordinary person.
I dunno, I think if I had a bunch of asshole paparazzi camping out in the middle of my street, blocking me from getting into my own house, by day 4 I'd want to punch someone too.
Sometimes "reporters" need to get slapped. It's good for our democracy and at the very least makes for good television
From $8.00: I'm constantly amazed at the lengths people will go to get attention. Nevermind that the scumbag father is so attention starved that he is pestering every network he can think of to give him a show, but he actually coached his kids to lie to the police and everyone else about the circumstances regarding that stupido balloon.
Since the parents involved their children in the commission of their crimes, it's VERY likely that the children are going to end up in the foster care system. Hopefully the foster parents will try to teach the kids some values.
*******************
As a parent, I realize the worst thing in the world to possibly happen to you is to have your children taken away, but under these circumstances, the best thing to happen to this couple's children would be to be taken away from these crazy attention whores and be raised by (hopefully) caring and attentive foster parents who would teach them what it's like to be a family. This "family" is nothing of the sort.
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![[linked image]](http://www.blogcdn.com/www.urlesque.com/media/2009/10/balloon-boy-14.jpg)
