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balloon boy
New Mexico Boy, 9, Preps for Solo Flight in Balloon
By not in system - AOL NewsALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Bobby Bradley is ready. He has been training for about five years and learned from some of the most experienced and decorated pilots in the sport of ballooning. But he'll be making his own mark on the sport when he lifts off from a desolate patch of New Mexico desert in about seven weeks: At 9 years old, Bobby will become the youngest trained pilot to fly solo in an ultra-light hot air balloon. So is he excited? "Definitely," he says. Bradley Family Photo / AP Nine-year-old Bobby Bradley is set to become the youngest trained pilot to fly solo in an ultra-light ...
Balloon Boy Dad Gets the Itch to Sell Back Scratchers
By Buck Wolf - AOL News
(Oct. 28) -- Richard Heene has got the itch to return to the public eye, but this time he's not sending his kid up in a crazy balloon. Now, he's selling "Bear Scratch," a post that attaches to an interior or exterior wall that allows humans to scratch an itchy back the same way bears do in the wild. "If you itch like a 'son of a twitch' there's just one thing to do the job," Heene boasts in a video promotion, in which he describes himself as "an inventor." This new venture comes just one year after the infamous hoax in which he and his wife claimed that their 6-year-old son was trapped ...
NYC UFOs: Yup, They Were Just Balloons
By Lee Speigel - AOL News(Oct. 15) -- Not every person who sees a UFO is filled with hot air, but the unidentified flying objects spotted over Manhattan on Wednesday were apparently just a bunch of lost balloons. So says Angela Freeman of the Milestone School, which is in the New York City suburb of Westchester County. "UFO? They're crazy -- those are our balloons!" Freeman told the New York Daily News. A bundle of silver-colored balloons, meant for an engagement party for one of the Mount Vernon school's teachers, accidentally got loose and flew away at about 1 p.m. Nearly an hour later, Manhattan ...
'Balloon Boy' Anniversary: Lesson Learned?
By Deborah Hastings - AOL News
(Oct. 14) -- Rewind to one year ago: We watched, transfixed, as a giant silver balloon hurtled across the sky, chased by aircraft and vehicles on the ground. Inside was an undoubtedly terrified 6-year-old boy. The nation held its breath. And then exhaled in a giant sigh of disgust as it slowly became clear the whole episode was a giant hoax, perpetrated by the boy's parents, who'd launched an unmanned -- or un-boyed in this case -- Mylar bag toward Denver International Airport and then called authorities. And the media. With the first anniversary Friday of that cringe-inducing ...
'Balloon Boy' Family Reunited With Balloon
By David Knowles - AOL News(May 20) -- The glistening, aluminum-foil-wrapped helium balloon that transfixed American television audiences who believed it might be carrying a helpless 6-year-old boy has been returned to the man who built it -- but not without a little more controversy. Richard and Mayumi Heene arrrived at the Larimer County Sheriff's Office in Fort Collins, Colo., this week to retrieve the deflated aircraft. They have completed prison time for their role in the Oct. 15 hoax in which their 6-year-old son, Falcon, was believed to inside the flying-saucer-shaped balloon as it soared 7,000 feet in the air. ...
Balloon Boy Mom's Interviews Contradict Husband
By not in system - AOL NewsFORT COLLINS, Colo. (Jan. 23) - A newly released video shows the mother of the 6-year-old boy purported to be in a runaway balloon finally acknowledging to authorities it was all a hoax - contrary to her husband's repeated public denials just before reporting to jail. The video interviews obtained by the Fort Collins Coloradoan Friday show Mayumi Heene telling sheriff's officials that the Oct. 15 event was a hoax that she and her husband orchestrated to gain notoriety and land a reality TV show. "We tried working so hard to make money to survive. It's a shame to come up with this idea," ...
Father in Balloon Boy Hoax Reports to Jail
By not in system - AOL NewsFORT COLLINS, Colo. (Jan. 11) -- The Colorado man who admitted orchestrating the balloon boy hoax reported to jail Monday to begin a 90-day jail sentence. Richard Heene pleaded guilty to attempting to influence a public servant after the Oct. 15 saga that captivated a national television audience. But Heene now says he truly believed his 6-year-old son Falcon was inside the balloon and that he pleaded guilty only to appease authorities and save his wife from being deported to Japan. Mayumi Heene confessed to deputies, authorities said, and she pleaded guilty to filing a false report. She ...
Father Denies 'Balloon Boy' Spectacle Was Hoax
By not in system - AOL News(Jan. 7) -- A man who pleaded guilty to perpetrating a hoax by falsely reporting that his son was drifting over eastern Colorado in a balloon maintains in an interview with CNN's "Larry King Live" that the incident was not part of a plan for fame. Richard Heene pleaded guilty in November to a felony count of attempting to influence a public servant and was sentenced last month to 90 days in custody, to begin Jan. 11. He also must serve four years on probation and complete 100 hours of community service each year. But Heene, in an interview airing Friday, told CNN's Larry King he pleaded ...
2009's Top 10 Scandals
By Steve Pendlebury - AOL News(Dec. 28) -- Corrupt politicians, cheaters, hypocrites, creeps, con artists and publicity hounds. That reads like any other year's roster of people behaving badly. A beauty pageant, a state dinner, the Appalachian Trail, a golf club, a funny-looking balloon -- plus a bunch of kids. All of that sounds downright wholesome. Mix them together, stir in too much reality TV and a couple of sex tapes, and you get the uniquely spicy concoction that is the 2009 edition of the year's biggest scandals. ...
'Balloon Boy' Parents Sentenced to Jail
By not in system - AOL NewsFORT COLLINS, Colo. (Dec. 23) - The parents who pulled the balloon boy hoax in hopes of landing a reality TV show were sentenced to jail Wednesday - 90 days for him, 20 days for her - and barred from profiting from their newfound celebrity status for the next four years. Choking back tears, Richard Heene apologized in court for the frenzy he caused when he claimed his 6-year-old son Falcon had floated away in a giant helium balloon shaped like a flying saucer. "I'm very, very sorry. And I want to apologize to all the rescue workers out there, and the people that got involved in the ...
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