The Balloon Boy Incident was one of the most interesting pop culture moments ever. For hours the shocking story had millions on the edge of their seats. We take a look back at one the best hoaxes of all time.
Balloon Boy 0:00 Intro 0:35 Heene Family 0:57 Cops Called 2:08 News Spreads 3:19 Rescue 4:46 Big Mistake 6:32 Exposed 7:38 Aftermath 9:25 Outro
00:00To achieve an abundance of fame and riches, some people would go to extreme lengths and
00:13do the unimaginable. A small town family of five managed to trick the entire world
00:18with a very elaborate hoax. Unfortunately for them, their story began to unravel fairly
00:24quickly and their plan would blow up in their face. Let's take a look back at the infamous
00:30Balloon Boy incident and find out what actually happened. On a Thursday afternoon in October of
00:382009, many parts of the world were on the edge of their seats watching the live news,
00:44reporting on a rather strange occurrence. The Heaney family of Colorado called the police early
00:50in the morning in a frantic, suggesting their six-year-old son had floated away in a homemade
00:56helium balloon.
00:58911, what's your emergency?
01:00My family and I made an experimental flying saucer. It wasn't supposed to fly.
01:05Okay.
01:06We saw he had his thing tethered down.
01:09Okay.
01:10And I think my six-year-old boy…
01:14What's wrong?
01:15He got inside and it took off. Yeah.
01:20Okay, where is he at?
01:22He's in the air.
01:24And as luck would have it, they just so happened to be recording how it all started.
01:29Are you going to fly now?
01:31Ah!
01:35Oh!
01:39Okay, hold on, Brad. Cut.
01:41Record!
01:42Yeah.
01:45Here we go.
01:46Three, two, one!
01:48One!
01:51Whoa!
01:52Oh my God.
01:53Okay.
01:56Are you here?
01:57Tell her!
01:58You don't put the f***ing tell her now!
02:00Get out!
02:01Get out!
02:02Get out!
02:03Get out!
02:04Get out!
02:05Not only did the family call the local police.
02:08They also called multiple news stations in the surrounding area, requesting help tracking
02:13the balloon for their son's sake.
02:15Taking the rather intriguing story at face value.
02:19Many Colorado news publications ran with the story and sent up helicopters while broadcasting live.
02:26The coverage quickly took over the airwaves not just locally, but also on a national scale.
02:31I'm going to ask all three of you to hang on just a minute because we have rather an incredible breaking news story that we're following right now.
02:38And this is coming to us out of Colorado.
02:40What you all see right there is an experimental aircraft that inside of which is a six year old boy who got into that aircraft not that long ago and accidentally launched it.
02:55It's hard to believe, but it is absolutely true.
02:59Coverage turned the mysterious situation into an anxiety inducing phenomenon.
03:04Thousands of viewers became extremely invested in the strange happenings being reported.
03:09The balloon could be seen drifting at high speeds over multiple Colorado counties.
03:15The hysteria didn't stop with the people watching on television either.
03:19The local state officials got involved as well.
03:22Prompting commercial planes to be rerouted to avoid any sort of collision or interference with the balloon.
03:29The National Guard and other emergency services would also be called to assist in the rescue efforts.
03:36It was all hands on deck.
03:38The state would spend around $40,000 on equipment and services to retrieve the boy trapped in the balloon.
03:45While Falcon was allegedly floating over multiple towns at high speeds.
03:49Many reporters visited the child's parents to get their reactions as things unfolded.
03:56Richard Heaney and his wife Mayumi would do interviews at their home expressing deep concern for Falcon.
04:03Soon things would come to a dramatic conclusion.
04:06After about two hours of flight and 60 miles of distance traveled.
04:10The UFO shaped balloon would finally land in a remote area.
04:16Ambulances and other emergency responders would be dumbfounded to find no sign of the boy.
04:22Many panicked as some wondered if he had fallen from the craft.
04:26Shortly after the confusion surrounding his whereabouts.
04:30The family notified the news that they found him hiding in their attic.
04:33Immediately this led many to speculate of it being a hoax.
04:39The Heaney family sat down with major news outlets later.
04:43And things started to get quite odd in the interviews.
04:46Last night on Larry King Live, I'm going to play this moment for everyone.
04:50Because there was kind of a gasp from people watching.
04:52Why didn't you come out?
04:53Why didn't you come out?
04:55Um, you had said that, um, we did this for a show.
05:06Man.
05:09You had said, we did this for a show?
05:13What it was, was I asked him after last night's interview what he was talking about.
05:19And, um, there were a lot of cameras out front of our, in front of our yard.
05:25And we were, of course, uh, getting interviewed.
05:27Falcon?
05:29Falcon?
05:31You okay there?
05:33You okay there?
05:35You sure?
05:36He's, uh, extremely tired.
05:38No, Mom, I feel like I'm going to vomit.
05:41Oh.
05:43You okay, buddy?
05:44Um.
05:46Uh.
05:48Yeah, he's, I think he's queasy.
05:50Um.
05:54Should we, should we take you to the bathroom or something?
05:56Yeah.
05:58Okay.
05:59Okay.
06:00Cool.
06:01Good buddy.
06:02Uh, there's some, there's a wire here.
06:04Anyan.
06:08Is he okay?
06:09Is somebody going to go with him?
06:10Naomi do you want to run with him?
06:11That's okay, we'll understand.
06:12Is that okay?
06:13Sure.
06:14Okay.
06:15We understand.
06:17Uh, exactly.
06:18Is he okay, Richard?
06:19I see.
06:21Um, well, he's got asthma and, um, sometimes when he starts to get an attack he feels queasy.
06:29Maybe that's what's going on.
06:31The awkward behavior during the interviews prompted the police to investigate the incident further.
06:37A publicity stunt seemed likely after researching the family more.
06:41We have since learned, as many of you have, that these people are actors.
06:45Uh, not only have they appeared in several reality television shows and on YouTubes,
06:49uh, we have since determined that, in fact, they met together.
06:53The way that they met and established a relationship was an acting school in Hollywood.
06:59Well known to CNN's iReport because he has submitted videos to us before in the past.
07:04Here he is last year submitting a video to CNN's iReport about his theories about the planet Mars.
07:10It appears that the Heaney family were featured on the show Wife Swap.
07:14I've never seen it, but I've, I've heard of it.
07:16There's a storm coming and the Heenies of Colorado are headed straight into it.
07:21Is that a tornado?
07:23Yes!
07:25Here we go!
07:27Mom Mayumi is devoted to helping her fringe scientist and inventor husband Richard
07:31and also manages to take care of the three rough tough Heaney boys who are completely out of this world.
07:37The parents face serious legal trouble for the expensive hoax.
07:41They were charged with multiple offenses for the search and rescue efforts.
07:47Both parents later pleaded guilty to the crimes brought forth.
07:51A judge sentenced Richard Heaney to serve 90 days of incarceration.
07:56And 100 hours of community service.
07:59For his wife Mayumi, she was sentenced to 20 days in jail.
08:03They were also ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution.
08:10Years later, Richard still claims the incident was real.
08:14Despite the guilty plea and the evidence saying otherwise.
08:17And how after you stack all that stuff, throw in the interview that was on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, you throw all that together with a background you have.
08:27Why won't people, why wouldn't people go?
08:29This is another hit piece.
08:30This is another hit piece, which I anticipate.
08:32Here?
08:33Yeah.
08:34What is it going to take to change public opinion that you know is still out there about what happened 10 years ago?
08:40What would be nice is if the media could actually go, yeah, Richard's got a point, but it's so biased, okay?
08:47The media continues on with the same narrative.
08:50And all these years later?
08:52Do you feel a sense still that you need to clear your name?
08:56Oh, most definitely.
08:57Still 10 years later?
08:58Yeah.
08:59Oh, yeah.
09:00Why is that still so important to you?
09:01I've lost many opportunities.
09:02I've lost a lot of opportunities.
09:03I've had people contact me about things I've invented, and the deal went south.
09:08And, you know, because they find out who I am.
09:11What do you think about this story?
09:13Was it all just an expensive misunderstanding?
09:16Or was the family just out to get their 15 minutes of fame?
