Netflix’s Trainwreck docuseries has coated every part from 2013’s Carnival “Poop Cruise” to the lethal crowd crush at 2021’s Astroworld Music Competition. Now the sequence turns its lens on one of the vital weird information tales of the twenty first century: 2009’s Balloon Boy hoax.
Trainwreck: Balloon Boy revisits the almost two-hour-long interval on Oct. 15, 2009 throughout which the US watched, transfixed, as a helium balloon flew over Colorado, reportedly with a 6-year-old youngster inside.
That youngster was Falcon Heene, son of Richard and Mayumi Heene. Nonetheless, he was by no means within the balloon within the first place. As an alternative, he was hiding within the attic above the Heenes’ storage. Falcon’s discovery and the next media storm prompted suspicions that the whole disaster had been a hoax cooked as much as deliver consideration to the Heene household. What occurred subsequent, and the place is the Heene household now?
Why did individuals assume Balloon Boy was a hoax?
Suspicion that the Balloon Boy incident was a hoax started throughout an interview with Wolf Blitzer, wherein Falcon Heene mentioned he’d heard his mother and father calling for him whereas he was within the attic however did not reply as a result of, “You guys said we did this for the show.”
In Trainwreck: Ballon Boy — which options interviews with Richard, Mayumi, and Falcon Heene, in addition to his older brother, Bradford — Richard, Mayumi, and Falcon declare that “the show” was in reference to the overall quantity of media consideration the household was receiving on the time.
Different suspicious components included the household’s prior look on Spouse Swap, which many believed to be an indication that the Heenes wished movie star, in addition to eyes on Richard’s innovations. Then, when Richard launched footage of the household’s panic as soon as the balloon was airborne, critics denounced their reactions as actuality TV-style appearing.
What occurred to the Heene household?
The Heene household in “Trainwreck: Balloon Boy.”
Credit score: Courtesy of Netflix
Richard pled responsible to the felony cost of trying to affect a legislation enforcement official and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Mayumi was sentenced to twenty days in jail. The couple additionally needed to pay $36,000 in restitution.
Based on Richard and his lawyer David Lane, he accepted a plea deal as a result of Mayumi was underneath menace of deportation to her native Japan. The Larimer County District Legal professional’s workplace denied these threats.
In 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis pardoned Richard and Mayumi Heene. “Richard and Mayumi have paid the price in the eyes of the public, served their sentences, and it’s time for all of us to move on,” Polis mentioned in a press release. “It’s time to no longer let a permanent criminal record from the balloon boy saga follow and drag down the parents for the rest of their lives.”
Mashable High Tales
The place is the Heene household now?
Within the years following the Balloon Boy incident, the Heene household moved to Florida. Richard Heene continued to invent contraptions, together with HeeneDuty Truck TransFormer, a robotic system for loading and unloading issues from pickup vans; the Bear Scratch, a wall-mounted again scratcher; and the BlowJab fan, a fan in a plastic field used for cooling genitalia. Of those innovations, solely the Bear Scratch is at present being bought.
The Heene sons — Falcon, Ryo, and Bradford — additionally began a heavy metallic band as youngsters. Often called Heene Boyz, the band’s songs embrace “Balloon Boy No Hoax,” the video for which options footage from the balloon chase.
Since then, the Heene household has moved into the tiny home-based business with their Florida-based enterprise, Craftsman Tiny Houses. Based on Craftsman Tiny Houses’ web site, the whole household is concerned.
Is there any new proof that the Balloon Boy incident was a hoax?
In 2019, Denver journal 5280 printed a function titled “The Balloon Boy Hoax — Solved!” The article noticed workers author Robert Sanchez catching up with the Heene household as they labored on a renovation challenge in New Hampton, New York.
Throughout his work on the function, Sanchez obtained permission from Mayumi and her lawyer Christian Lee to look by way of her case file. There, he discovered handwritten notes from Mayumi, together with a timeline of the occasions of the Balloon Boy incident, beginning all the way in which again on April 27, 2009.
The notes talked about that the Heenes had been pitching a science present, however that it saved being rejected. Additionally they element the development of the balloon.
On Oct. 6, Mayumi wrote, as transcribed by Sanchez, “We have a video of Falcon saying, ‘I want to get inside of it.'”
On Oct. 14, Mayumi wrote, “Richard mentioned what if Falcon hid for 1/2 hours later and landed… Falcon can hide in the closet with a safe in the basement.”
Based on Sanchez, these notes had been proof of the Heenes’ makes an attempt to engineer a hoax. Nonetheless, since Falcon hid within the attic as a substitute of the basement, as had seemingly been the plan, his mother and father wound up unable to search out him and panicked that he had really been within the balloon. As Mayumi wrote in an Oct. 18 notice a few assembly with their attorneys, “Richard revealed he came down to the basement to look for Falon, but he wasn’t there. Richard thought really Falcon would be in the flying saucer.”
When Sanchez requested Richard and Mayumi Heene in regards to the timeline, they denied any of it occurring. Mayumi claimed she made up the story for her lawyer.
Trainwreck: Balloon Boy is now streaming on Netflix.
