sooo....where's the kid?

[Spicelon]

Anybody else (in the states) not working and watching the balloon boy thing? I got a bad feeling...

[Serkanner]

I has hit Dutch news now as well. Is he truly in it or not?

[SandChigger]

Nothing on CNNj at the moment, but ... kewl.

I always wanted to do that as a kid...


(Yes, of course I hope they get him down OK, if he's in it, but if not ... Darwin Lives!)

[Drunken Idaho]

His brother saw him climb in, and it has landed in a field with apparently no passengers...

NBC doesn't know much. Apparently the craft may have been designed without a basket?

Could be a nice little prank played by a couple brothers.

[Sandwurm88]

Yeah, he's probably a goner. Cool story though, I saw this on myth busters and they said one guy who did it just brought a bee-bee gun and shot the balloons after he was ready to get down.

[Crysknife]

Found him hiding in a box in an attic. Crazy story. I thought for sure he was a gonner.

[othaderak]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/ame ... 309818.stm

[Freakzilla]

Now his dad is going to kill him.

[Redstar]

Total hoax? Somewhere Bruce Willis is doubting his time-travel.

[Freakzilla]

It's a plot by Obama to distract you from the issues.

[SandChigger]

(Nice one!)

Anderson Cooper's been all over it this morning on CNNj.

I haven't been around a lot of six-year-olds recently, so I kinda forget what their average level of mental development is like, but in the interviews the kid doesn't seem to grasp what all the fuss is about, why people are upset.

And am I a trog when I see him grinning and just want to reach out and give him a good swat?

(The mother is Japanese, but since they live in the States, would the kids have picked up the Japanese response of sometimes smiling when embarrassed?)

[Freakzilla]

And am I a trog when I see him grinning and just want to reach out and give him a good swat?

No, that's the problem. You can't openly beat your kids.

[Eyes High]

I'm just glad he's alive.

But yeah, I'm assuming he's going to be in major trouble for a while.

[TheDukester]

I'm not sure about that; the more I read about the family, the more they look like complete wingnuts. Storm-chasing? Wife-swapping? The mind boggles.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/10/15/h ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[smugetsu]

I heard about this on the radio this morning, and decided to do a little digging.

To me, it sounds like the whole thing was a publicity stunt to promote the dad's "adventure science" show he wants to create. Last night on Larry King Live, the kid got frustrated by some questions and basically turned to his dad and said, "I only did it for the show." Supposedly there's going to be an inquiry today to see if any charges will be pressed.

And I really hope there are. Millions of taxpayer dollars wasted because some asshole wants face-time on CNN? I think not.

Maybe KJA will write the book about it...

[lotek]

I'm not sure about that; the more I read about the family, the more they look like complete wingnuts. Storm-chasing? Wife-swapping? The mind boggles.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/10/15/h ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Wife Swap" Web site described them this way: "When the Heene family aren't chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm."

awww kkayy

[SandChigger]

Um, I don't quite think it was "millions" of dollars, was it?

I mean, I haven't had CNNj on again since (Friday) morning, but the last totals I saw were something like $25,000 for the law enforcement personnel, $14,000/hr for one of the big helicopters, $700/hr for a smaller one ... things in that range. I don't know how many hours it all went on, but surely it's not going to be more than $100,000 ~ $200,000? Still a lot, of course.

But yeah, if it was a stunt, I think the father should be prosecuted.


(This morning AC or someone else asked whether families should be charged for the expenses of this sort of thing as a matter of course. The person being interviewed said definitely not, that timely response was essential in cases of missing children and if people knew they were going to be charged for search and rescue they might wait too long in contacting authorities. That makes sense.)

[smugetsu]

Um, I don't quite think it was "millions" of dollars, was it?

I mean, I haven't had CNNj on again since (Friday) morning, but the last totals I saw were something like $25,000 for the law enforcement personnel, $14,000/hr for one of the big helicopters, $700/hr for a smaller one ... things in that range. I don't know how many hours it all went on, but surely it's not going to be more than $100,000 ~ $200,000? Still a lot, of course.

Maybe not yet, but the cost of such things is going to be an ongoing expense. The state government won't just write one big check or anything like that, but the man-hours they're going to spend investigating this incident will add up over time. The inquiry into whether or not they will press charges will cost money (again, in terms of manpower) and if they do press charges, then it will cost the legal system time/money too.

I don't think I'm going to advocate jail time for this guy...

...just make him pay back all the money the state wasted on his little stunt.

In all fairness, "millions" was and is an overstatement! Hundreds of thousands is more like it. I'm sorry, but people that do stupid things to try to get attention frustrate me, and they take advantage of a system that's there to help them. I admit the system is flawed, but sometimes it really does work. For this guy to (alledgedly, at this point) basically use the system as a giant advertisement for himself and/or his family is wrong.

Edited to feature 120% more rage:

Think about it, though. That money that was spent searching for this kid came from somewhere- the taxpayers of Colorado. That in and of itself is something of an outrage to me. But think of it like this: that was money wasted. Money that could have been used to fix roadways, buy new equipment for the police, fund a better education program, things like that.

He (if he is guilty, of course) is a complete and total asshole. The only person I can think of that's worse is the asshole that will give him his own show.

[A Thing of Eternity]

I've been saying for a long time that as part of their sentence, people found guilty of ANYTHING should be forced to pay back the costs of investigating, prosecuting and housing them (if jailed). It should come in the form of labour while in jail, and garnished wages if out of jail. People should LITERALLY pay back their so called "debt to society". I (society) don't take cheques payable in suffering or lost years, I take cheques payable in CASH.

The threat of having their wages garnished for years, if not the rest of their life, would be a FAR greater deterrant than jail time alone IMO.

Omph, you're a lawyer, what do you think?

[Omphalos]

I've been saying for a long time that as part of their sentence, people found guilty of ANYTHING should be forced to pay back the costs of investigating, prosecuting and housing them (if jailed). It should come in the form of labour while in jail, and garnished wages if out of jail. People should LITERALLY pay back their so called "debt to society". I (society) don't take cheques payable in suffering or lost years, I take cheques payable in CASH.

The threat of having their wages garnished for years, if not the rest of their life, would be a FAR greater deterrant than jail time alone IMO.

Omph, you're a lawyer, what do you think?

I think its a good idea, but the system would have to recognize that in many cases jury decisions are made based on a modicum of evidence that goes one way (towards guilt), and that financially hobbling someone for years based on a very minor amount of evidence may not be fair.

Lots of jurisdictions are actually doing this these days. Three jurisdictions have chain gangs (one, in AZ, is a full-on out-in-the-community road gang), and many, many others charge fees to recover for expenses they incurred during investigation. The problem is that all someone has to do to get out of this is declare bankruptcy, so its hard to collect. And, of course, most people are judgment proof anyway.

As for this case, seems like nobody knew what was going on. Rescue workers are hired and funded for this sort of thing, so unless that kid's dad was trying some sort of publicity stunt because he really missed being on TV with WifeSway, probably shouldn't bill him for this.

[smugetsu]

And that's just it. If it's an honest mistake and there was no publicity stunt on the part of the father, then he shouldn't be billed for it. As they say, shit happens.

But if he sparked this balloon-hunt from anything other than the fear of a concerned parent, if he did it out of greed, then he should get an invoice. The thought of someone exploiting the system, and, more importantly, their child in such a manner sickens me- but it doesn't surprise me, either.

Ah, but that's MY opinion- and I label it as such.

[SandChigger]

Anyone catch the kid blowing chunks during the morning interviews?

And the interview was SO DAMNED IMPORTANT that the father just kept on talking. Some parent.


According to some ballooning expert(?) CNN had on yesterday, the balloon itself was built from a kit available on the market. It seems to me that the lift capacity of something like that would be known, and that the parents should know about how much their son weighs, and that someone could have figured out whether the balloon could have actually lifted the boy or stayed aloft so long with him in it.

And that's another thing: looking at the new home videos and the videos taken from the copters, isn't it kinda obvious that the bottom hatbox-like structure hasn't been opened (for the kid to get inside) and that there's no kid moving around inside it later? (And even if you assume that he had lost consciousness, shouldn't there have been a bulge along the bottom of the balloon indicating where he was?)

Seems to me like a lot of brains were either not working at all or short-circuited by panic.

[Hunchback Jack]

The weight issue occurred to me, too. After all the talk of a kid being inside the thing, I was surprised how small and flimsy the balloon was.

HBJ

[Redstar]

I'm hearing/reading that the parents set it up for publicity.

[othaderak]

I'm hearing/reading that the parents set it up for publicity.

But storm-chaser dad has a rebuttal: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8311754.stm