Heene reports for jail in ‘Balloon Boy’ hoax
January 11, 2010
A man who pleaded guilty to perpetrating a hoax by saying his 6-year-old son was drifting over Colorado in a balloon began his jail sentence Monday.
Richard Heene turned himself in Monday morning at the Larimer County Detention Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, said Dean Karges, a detention services specialist at the jail.
Heene pleaded guilty in November to a felony count of attempting to influence a public servant.
Heene and his wife took advantage of their son’s disappearance in order to have a reality show. he showed little interest in the disappearance and most interest in having a reality show. Heene was sentenced 90 days in custody. He will spend 30 days and nights in jail but is eligible for work release during the last 60 days of his sentence, said Linda Jensen, who is a spokeswoman for the district attorney. Because of his job, he would work during the day and go back to jail in the night. He must served four years on probation and he must complete 100 years of community service each year.
When the balloon came to rest in a field, Heene’s son was not inside. The boy later was found hiding in the family’s house and not in the balloon.
“You guys said we did this for the show,” falcon said in the interview after his father asked him why he had not come out from hiding when he heard his parents calling for him. Later in the interview the Heenes said their son was simply confused.
Later on, Heene’s wife Mayumi said the whole thing was a setup because Heene wanted to take advantage in the situation in order for him to have a reality show. Thanks to his wife, he was discovered and the authorities said he planned a hoax because of his son’s disappearance.
“There is no doubt in my mind that this thing was a hoax, and I really doubt that there’s very few people in America who don’t understand at this point that this was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by Richard and Mayumi.”
