Rescuers are tracking and chasing a “homemade flying saucer” that is in flight with a 6-year-old, by himself, on board.
The incident started this morning in Fort Collins when the boy got into the balloon-like device, which was built by an adult, and it came loose from a tether, according to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office.
UPDATE: 12:39pm PDT– The boy wasn’t on board. Did he fall out? Was he ever on board? Where is he?
CNN is reporting that the family had been on the show ‘Wife Swap.’ WTF?
12:52pm PDT — [Correction] Older brother reported that he saw the boy dart into the balloon. Others thought they saw something fall out. Checking the neighborhood, the boy still hasn’t been found.
1:10pm PDT — Here’s info on the family.
1:15pm PDT — He may never have been on board both because the craft was never designed to hold anyone and as it flew partially deflated you couldn’t see him rolling against the fabric. Also, as someone on CNN just calculated, there probably wasn’t enough helium to lift the boy a mile and a half up.
1:20pm PDT — Sheriff’s Dept reporting the basket wasn’t breached and the boy is assumed to be in the neighborhood.
1:25pm PDT — The father had submitted videos on his theories to CNN.
1:52pm PDT — There may have been a box attached beneath the balloon that the boy got into which was not on during flight. Was this what fell off?
3:09pm PDT — He’s alive and home! No details where he was yet.
3:11pm PDT — He was hiding in a box in the attic of the garage.
Somebody change me, exciting stuff!
Doesn’t anybody watch MythBusters? They tried to see how many helium balloons were needed to lift a small girl. The cluster of balloons looked bigger then a 2 level house.
so what news wasn’t being covered while THIS stupid kid trick was going on?
Seems to me these people should be BANISHED from television, they’ve used up their few minutes of fame. But, doesn’t work that way, does it? When is the made for tv movie, and book coming out?
LMAO people in colorado are weird… i know i’ve lived here a while now
I guess the war in Iraq’s over…
Adam Curry will be drooling to talk about this one.
It was just announced on the BBC that the child has been grounded…
@39 Scott,
Well played, LOL!
I thought that the first thing to do was see if the kid was hiding in the home? This was what the police did when I went missing when I was young.Common sense is not common today ;P
#38. 99redbufoons….Huh, a Mac user…explains a lot.
#11 made the grounded joke.
Some chick on the Weather Channel (I think) said the family “looks quirky.”
Really? Because they’re mixed race? I didn’t know what the heck she was talking about.
From the scale of the thing, once it was near anything of a known size, I could easily estimate that it hadn’t the buoyancy to lift a small boy. And since their Dad had made the thing, I’m sure he knew this to. So he had to be in on the hoax, with him chiming in on the story of having video of his kid climbing into. And BTW, there was no place on the bottom where a “box” was attached. That just left the silver shrouded “Utility” compartment. Which I assume was just a framework to hold “weather instruments” or something. But why make it a silver saucer shaped. Since this isn’t the standard weather balloon shape or material. In fact it’s much harder to make it that shape, and less durable to use Mylar than stretchy rubber or latex. Proven by the fact that the thing leaked and deflated, rather quickly.
What this IS, is a carefully constructed hoax, by a UFO nut and his family, who didn’t get enough attention from the last time they were seen on “Wife Swap”. So they’ve got reality Tv withdraw. And cooked up this stunt, to regain the spotlight. Imagine hiding his 6 year old in the garage rafters, in a box, until the balloon came down. Dad was probably hoping it would fly off into space. And they he’d find his son, out in some field, returned by the friendly space aliens, from “V”.
Boy says on CNN that he “did it for the show”.
Unbelievable. After he said it the mother and father try to bullshit their way out of it but it’s clear the kid leaked the truth.
Keep all the views of this thing. Because I can guarantee you, there will be fuzzy, distorted photos of it, a few years from now. Along with claims that it was a “REAL UFO” shot down. And the “adult” who made it will probably be selling them. He was probably counting on the authorities and news crews to chase it, to get additional pics. But not after it went limp.
No dude they look quirky because Dad has that psychotic perma-smile…hell, they participated in a couple of reality TV shows so it’s clear they’re attention whores.
Anyway, they’re clearly Pleidians or potentially Lizard People!
You could blindfold those kids with dental floss.