Trainwreck: Balloon Boy (2025)

[bunniefuu]

[tense music plays]

[dispatcher] 911,

what's your emergency?

[man 1 speaking]

-[dispatcher] Mm-hmm.

-[man 1 speaking]

-[man 1] And, uh, it took off!

-[dramatic music plays]

This is a very unusual situation

that is unfolding right now.

It involves a home-built UFO

powered by helium.

What the hell's going on?

[chuckles] What is this thing?

[man 2] My immediate response was,

"You have to be jerking my bobber."

[chuckles]

[woman] It does have

the capability of going 10,000 feet.

It's so bizarre that you wanna laugh.

[dispatcher] Okay, so what's wrong?

[man 3] But then, all of a sudden,

it turns serious.

[music swells, stops]

[man 1 speaking and sobbing]

[music resumes]

-[tires squeal]

-[siren wails]

[male reporter] Has there ever been

a situation like this?

[man 4] I think that young man's in

for a heck of a ride.

Holy cow.

Oh my God.

The first call that we got

to Sky9 came from the family's home.

That sounds like the Heenes.

-Three, two, one.

-[boy] Two, one.

All I wanted to do was make

a really fantastic project for the kids.

Mayumi! You didn't put

the [bleep] tether down!

But what if my stupid experiment

kills my son?

[reporters clamoring]

[Mayumi] The reality was

so hard to accept.

What have we done?

[Kim Christiansen] It is like

a horrific version of the movie Up.

I couldn't wrap my head around it.

It-- It really was like a science fiction.

[man 3] The media starts digging in.

Who are the Heenes?

They're uncontrollable.

They're just, uh-- They're wild.

[Kim] We just got confirmation

that this family had been featured

on a reality show last year.

Look at you, man!

This family is crazy.

This dad should be arrested.

Really, really focus on my voice.

The motto at the sheriff's office is,

"You lie, you die."

We're cutting this thing off, okay?

f*ck those guys.

This is a tight-knit, loving family.

[male reporter] He's at 100 feet.

[man 3] We all thought

that once that balloon came down,

this whole thing would be over.

[suspenseful music builds, swells, fades]

[voice breaking] It's supposed to be

a fun project.

-[sniffles]

-But it was only just the beginning.

[electronic whooshing]

[distorted electric guitar note plays]

[birds chirping]

[pleasant music plays]

[Richard Heene] In 2009,

we were living in Colorado,

and we had moved there from California.

[thunder cracks]

We wanted to chase tornadoes

and do, uh, science research projects.

[fuse crackling]

[whooshing]

I have a very deep passion

for things that are unknown.

[clicking rapidly]

There it goes!

-Yeah!

-[Mayumi] Congratulations!

-How do you feel? [giggles]

-[Richard yells excitedly]

Our Heene family is very unique.

[Falcon] Yeah! Look!

[Mayumi] Falcon, six.

-They're scissors.

-[Mayumi] Ryo, eight.

-Strippers.

-[Mayumi] And Bradford is ten.

We adventure together, build together.

-[intriguing music plays]

-We like to make sure we chase a thrill.

-[hail pattering]

-We're in the middle of Hurricane Gustav.

-[hail thuds on window]

-[Richard] Oh my! Damn!

[Bradford] My dad was always making us

look up science experiments on YouTube.

[Richard] There we go! [gasps]

[Bradford] We were

super interested in UFOs.

[electronic trilling]

[Tina Chavez] We lived across

from the Heene house.

And Richard, just right from the jump,

just this big energy,

constantly pacing,

talking 100 miles an hour.

But he was super smart.

He could build anything.

He could put electrical things together.

I always asked him and said,

"Are you from MIT or what?"

[Tina] Our bedroom window

overlooked the Heenes' backyard.

[Richard] All right, pull this off.

[Dean] One time, I looked out the window

and noticed he was working on something.

[Richard] Same thing we did last time.

It really did look like a silver disk.

-[Richard] Got it? Pull!

-[Bradford] Yup.

My husband, Richard, always wanted

to build a flying saucer since 1979.

[chuckles]

I just thought, "What if everybody

could be flying around like The Jetsons?"

[The Jetsons theme song plays]

It would be just wonderful.

Everybody could be pulling out

of their garage in flying saucers,

going to school and work.

And you wouldn't have all this traffic.

[electronic whooshing and trilling]

[ominous sting]

[intriguing music plays]

We started working on a flying saucer

that was gonna be 20 feet across

and 6 feet tall.

When he said, uh, "We're gonna try

to make, like, a flying saucer."

And we're like,

"Oh f*ck! That's f*cking cool."

Okay, Brad, take station A over here.

I mean, on B. I'll take number A.

-[Bradford] Hurry up. Move.

-[Richard] Here we go.

It took us two weeks

to assemble a whole flying saucer.

Here we go.

[Mayumi chuckles]

-Pretty cool, huh?

-[Mayumi] Yeah.

[Richard] We were hoping to do

the test launch on our anniversary.

The concept is

to tether the flying saucer down,

and let it hover at 20 feet.

And we could observe

with the video cameras

whether it's gonna move left or right

or up and down.

Here we go.

-What do you guys think?

-[boys giggle]

[boy] Cool.

[Richard] Underneath the flying saucer

is this compartment.

Go, look in here.

[Falcon] Can we go inside?

[Richard] Uh, I don't think

that's a good idea.

It was not designed

to have people go in it.

It was a compartment that had

to have access to put the helium in it.

[Bradford] My dad would make me video

pretty much every experiment,

but, at the same time, like,

keep my brothers in check.

-[Falcon] I'm inside!

-[Ryo] He's inside.

[Bradford] Falcon was

pretty wild and chaotic.

[Ryo] Falcon, out!

[Mayumi] You are inside. Come on, get out.

I don't wanna say a sh*t starter,

but, like, he's always getting into stuff.

[Ryo] Get out!

[Bradford] He'd be touching sh*t

he wasn't supposed to.

He was super interested in hiding

in the bottom of the flying saucer.

[Falcon giggles]

[Mayumi chuckling] Sneaky!

[adventurous music plays]

So we're gonna put this on.

I need you to go take care of, um

-I need you to tether it down, okay?

-[Mayumi] Okay. All right.

My main focus

was tie down the flying saucer,

so it's gonna be secure.

[Richard] So I guess

I'll bring the bottles out.

-[clanks]

-We got the helium hose hooked up.

It's filling up.

-[boys giggle]

-Look at this. It's working.

-It's getting puffy.

-[Mayumi laughs]

-Yeah, Mom. Is this, like, the best?

-[chuckles] Yeah.

-[Richard] Huh?

-I'm like a kid now.

[laughing] Yay!

[Richard] This is the moment

we've been waiting for.

-Here we go. Three, two, one.

-[Mayumi] Two, one.

[Richard] I pull the pin.

-[Ryo] Whoa!

-[Richard] Oh my God.

I'm watching this,

and here's-- here it is.

I mean, this is it at 20 feet.

[adventurous music swells]

[ominous music plays]

[shouting] Mayumi, the tethers!

[Mayumi] What?!

-You didn't put the f*cking tether down!

-I did!

-[grunts]

-I did!

-No. No.

-[tense music playing]

It wasn't 20 feet.

The tethers, like, snapped,

and it took off.

It keeps going up, going up.

-[Richard] Why didn't you tie it down?

-[Mayumi] I did!

[Richard] I was so f*cking pissed.

It was hundreds of dollars gone.

As I was recording, I remember

looking around and not seeing Falcon.

[Bradford] Dad! Dad!

And I kept trying to tell him

that Falcon was in the flying saucer.

-Jesus Christ!

-Falcon was in there.

Falcon was in the ship.

And I was, like, super f*cking scared.

Like, that's my brother.

This sh*t's taken off,

and there's nothing you can do.

-Dad, Falcon's in there.

-[Richard] Where?

-[Bradford] In the ship!

-[Richard] He was just here.

[Bradford] No, he's in there!

-[Richard and Mayumi] What?!

-[Bradford] I saw him crawl in.

-[Richard] No, he's not. He was just here.

-[Bradford] Yeah.

Wait a minute. Where is Falcon?

[unsettling sting]

I'm running around the yard.

I go towards the garage.

Falcon!

He's always hiding.

-Falcon!

-[Mayumi] No!

[Richard] I go inside the house.

I'm shouting.

Maybe he went to the bathroom.

I'm running through the living room.

I go upstairs. I'm shouting for him.

-Falcon!

-[door opens]

[Mayumi] And the more we visit

every place he could be in

[voice breaking] is, "This is out.

This is out. This is out."

[whimpers]

What have we done?

[eerie music plays]

[Dean] I heard

all the screaming and yelling

and the chaos in their backyard.

My son, Brennan, he ran back, he says,

"Dad, they said Falcon got in the balloon,

and it took off."

And my heart started to beat

through my chest.

I was getting very frantic, you know?

And I was like,

"Okay, this cannot be happening."

[Richard] All I could think about was,

"Oh my God."

"The winds were taking him straight

to an airport."

"He's headed straight for air traffic."

I thought, "I gotta call the FAA."

I get on the phone, and I told them,

"I think my son's

in this experimental flying saucer."

And then she told me,

"Well, if you've got an emergency,

then you need to dial 911."

So I called 911.

-[dispatcher speaks]

-[Richard speaks]

[dispatcher speaks]

-[Richard speaks]

-[dispatcher] Okay.

[Richard speaks]

[dispatcher speaks]

The operator asked me to get on the phone,

so she could verify

what he was saying to her.

She asked me

the same question over and over.

[dispatcher speaks]

[Mayumi] Yes.

[Mayumi speaks]

You heard him. Why I need to explain?

Please put somebody on it.

[Mayumi sobbing]

[Mayumi speaks]

[Mayumi sobs]

[voice breaking] Why you don't get it?

-[siren wails intermittently]

-[ominous music plays]

[Bob Heffernan]

I'm sitting in my patrol car,

about to get off duty

before going on an elk hunt

-[radio beeps]

-[dispatcher speaks]

when I started hearing

cracklings over the radio

of a missing six-year-old boy

that supposedly went up

in a flying saucer,

and I'm thinking,

"What in the world's going on here?"

-[sirens wailing]

-[tense music plays]

So I got to the Heene house

as soon as I could.

Richard and Mayumi were very distraught.

We conducted

a very thorough search of the home.

Not only did we do it a second time,

we did it a third time.

[camera shutter clicking]

Plus, there was other people

searching for other possibilities

of where the child may be, um,

but I started to have

this gut-wrenching thought of,

"Man, this could be really bad."

[music fades]

I'm Kim Christiansen.

We'll get to the economy in a moment,

but, first, some breaking news

about a very unusual situation.

It involves a child

and a home-built aircraft

in the shape of a UFO,

powered by helium.

-[timer beeping]

-[tense string music plays]

The child's father actually called

our information center in a panic,

asking if we would launch our helicopter.

[dramatic sting]

[Jimmy Negri] The news director told me

that we needed to find this flying saucer

that has a six-year-old boy in it.

I was just in shock and awe

and ran to the airport as fast as I could.

And we take off like crazy,

flying southeast,

to try to find

this poor little boy in this craft.

We're just out in the middle of nowhere,

looking for a spot in the sky.

-[male reporter] There. Oh! We passed it.

-[Kim] We thought we saw it.

I think we're getting back to it.

[reporter] Up and right. There you are.

Oh! You went past it.

-[Kim] There it is.

-[hopeful music plays]

[Negri] Finally, finally. Sorry, guys,

it's been a needle in a haystack here,

but we've tracked it now, and it's, uh

If you'll be patient with me for a moment,

I'll zoom in. Maybe see the child in here.

When I first see it,

it's at like 10,000 feet,

but it's cooking.

It's blowing as fast

as the winds will blow it.

Now, I'm even more afraid

because it's real,

and all we can do is sh**t a picture.

You know, you're watching a NASCAR wreck,

and there ain't a doggone thing

you can do about it.

[suspenseful music playing]

I am watching the TV

when MSNBC breaks

into a Barack Obama town hall.

Um, I'm gonna ask all three of you

to hang on just a minute

because we have

rather an incredible breaking news story

that we're following right now.

[man 3] I thought, "Wait a minute.

What's going on here?"

It looks like

this Jiffy Pop popcorn-type thing

floating across the-- the sky.

As a journalist, I am looking at this,

and I'm thinking,

"You couldn't even make it up."

[male reporter] Vinny, our floor director,

said he thought he saw

a small arm sticking out of there.

[Robert] It's like this train wreck

right in front of you.

It's so horrifying.

And then everybody broke

into their programming.

[Kim] It is like

a horrific version of the movie Up.

They saw the door was unlocked

and that when it took off that the boy

I'm flipping through the channels,

and this has gone from a hyper-local story

-to ABC, NBC, CBS

-[speaking indistinctly]

CNN, Fox News.

An incredible drama

playing out on live television.

Everyone starts covering this thing.

These pictures are coming to us from KUSA.

We're getting them right now on the fly.

This is all live.

There's only one compartment.

And he's just breathing in helium.

He could get asphyxiated.

The story completely blew up.

[dramatic music plays]

[text messages chiming]

[female reporter 1] We also know

the Colorado National Guard is involved.

And this is

kind of an Apollo 13 situation.

[music stops]

[Robert] I'm worried,

"Is the kid gonna fall out?"

"Are we gonna watch

a small child die on national TV?"

[timer beeping]

[male reporter] Police say Richard Heene

is inside the house right now.

The Larimer County Sheriff's Office

is also on hand.

[Dean] We've seen

all the different media vans pull up.

Reporters were walking the neighborhood.

They'd come up to our house

and knock on our door.

"Can we get a statement?"

"No, you can't." You know.

[Richard] We couldn't afford cable.

So I was in the dark

as to what was going on.

But one of the cops

told me I gotta stay put.

[impatiently] And I'm like,

"I can't just stand here and do nothing."

I needed to know

what the hell was going on.

You know, there was a thousand things

going through my mind,

and I really felt helpless.

"Oh my God, what are we gonna do?"

You know. "Is he gonna be safe?"

-[phone ringing]

-[suspenseful music playing]

That's when we received

the report of a neighbor

claiming she had taken photographs

of something falling from the spaceship.

[camera shutter clicks]

[voice breaking] They are not sure,

but it could be Falcon.

[Bob] It isn't the--

the best-quality photo,

and it could be a bird,

but we have to assume

that there's some credibility to it.

[music fades]

How do you deal with that? It's like

What if one of my stupid experiments

k*lled my son?

-[timer beeping]

-[suspenseful music plays]

[female reporter] It's clear that

the helium is leaving at a quicker rate.

He'll be descending more quickly,

and, um, um, this is-- I don't know

how much longer he'll stay in the air.

[Brian Willie] I'm on this road,

and Jimmy, the pilot of Sky9,

told me that I should be

just underneath it at any moment.

When I finally see it,

my heart's pumping because it's deflating,

and I can see

that it's deflating and lowering.

[female reporter 1] And as you can see,

it's losing a lot of helium.

[Brian] I have no idea

how long it's gonna be in the air

or where it's going.

And I had an eight-year-old son,

at the time,

and I just keep thinking about

what I would be going through as a dad.

[male reporter 1] It is clearly losing

a tremendous amount of gas. Yes.

[male reporter 2] I think

he's less than 200 feet off the ground.

[male reporter 3] He's going down.

He's at 100 feet. This is ending.

[gravel crunching under tires]

[Brian] I jump out, grab my camera,

and I just start running.

[male reporter 1] He's coming down now.

Here it goes. Yeah, he's coming down now.

-Very softly. Very softly.

-[male reporter 4] Look at that.

[male reporter 1] Oh my God.

[Brian] As the balloon lands,

I'm now the only person on the ground

that is live with video.

[tense music playing]

[reporter 1] It's ended,

and it's ended well.

All we need to know is,

"How is little Falcon Heene?"

[female reporter 2] And that's all.

[Brian] The first responders

are poking holes in it,

they're searching through it.

They turn it over,

and they're looking for the door.

And I have to report what's going on.

[man] Find the door on this thing.

[music fades]

[reporter 1] Brian, what are you seeing

there next to the balloon?

[Brian] Well, I've got, uh,

some information

that, um, I'm not quite sure

how to-- how to say,

but, uh, I don't believe that they found

anybody, uh, with this balloon.

-[reporter 2] Oh my goodness.

-[Brian] Um

I don't, uh

[microphone crackling]

[Brian inhales, sighs]

[male reporter] Apparently, KUSA,

their photojournalist is on the scene,

he's saying that there was nobody

in, uh, this compartment.

It was gut-wrenching, telling the world

that there was no boy in this balloon.

[gloomy music playing]

I was expecting, "It's landed.

We found him. He was safe."

Then where is he? Did he fall out?

There's no way he-- he would be alive.

Take Lewis with you, um, and start at 36.

[Bob] The ground search was underway,

and we were hoping

that we would be able to find Falcon

somewhere along the flight path.

[Dean] They had to go back

over the whole 55 miles.

We thought, "Okay, you know,

we're getting ready

to have a community funeral."

[music ends]

[beeps]

[Bob] I'm standing in the kitchen.

All of a sudden,

I started hearing commotion, screaming.

I didn't know what was going on.

I don't know if they had gotten word

that I hadn't gotten or what.

[tense piano notes playing slowly]

At first, I couldn't even believe it.

[inhales sharply]

And, then, look again.

I just remember turning around.

Oh my God.

Falcon! [laughs]

-You're home!

-[uplifting music plays]

I can still see him, in my-- in my head,

little, small six-year-old Falcon

standing there.

[music intensifies]

[Mayumi] Richard rushed out to him

and hugged him.

[laughing] And then

we didn't leave him alone anymore.

I couldn't believe it.

It was the greatest surprise I ever had.

[music ends]

[Falcon] I was very confused

at the reaction.

I'm just like, "Hey, Mom, I'm hungry."

And they're just, like, freaking out.

They're like, "Oh!"

He said, "Why are you guys crying?"

[laughing] Something like that.

I said, "Man, you really had us worried.

Where the hell were you?"

When Falcon tells us where,

I couldn't believe it.

[tense music plays]

[Falcon speaking indistinctly]

[Falcon] On that day, I was trying

to sneak in the flying saucer

because, well, it's a flying saucer.

It's really cool.

[Falcon grunting and giggling]

There's a little compartment there

that is perfect for my size.

I wanted to live in there, you know?

[Richard] Falcon, get out now! Come here!

What the hell are you doing?

Get outta there now!

[Falcon] Once he yelled at me a few times,

I was scared.

And I was like, "You know what?

I'm just not gonna be here."

And then I remember wanting

to go inside and just chill out for a bit.

I made my way through the house

up to my new hiding spot,

the garage attic.

[snoring]

I just chilled there for a while,

and then I got bored, fell asleep.

[suspenseful music playing]

And then it wasn't until I woke up later

that I started hearing weird noises,

like people or cars, maybe.

Then, eventually, I succumbed

to my hunger and boredom.

And then I walked down there,

and I'm like,

"Holy, there's a lot of people here.

This is crazy."

[indistinct radio chatter]

I literally could not get past

all the legs and stuff.

And then one guy's like, "Who are you?"

-[music stops]

-[laughs]

We have, uh, got breaking news tonight.

The, uh, child has been found alive.

The six-year-old boy

was never in the balloon.

He was in the house.

[texts chiming]

[Robert] He was at the house?

You had police searching the entire house,

and they couldn't find a six-year-old boy?

[disorienting sting]

[Bob] I know that is a priority

each and every time

we have a missing child case,

is search the home,

search the home, search the home.

And I had thought we had done it.

I thought we had done it

thorough enough, um,

but obviously we hadn't.

[tense drumbeat plays]

-[reporters clamoring]

-[camera shutters clicking]

[Robert] You can just imagine

the calls going out from producers saying,

"You need to get to this house right now."

[honking horn]

So you have cars

flooding this neighborhood,

and journalists going up

to the Heenes' front door

and trying to get an interview,

but the Heenes are not talking.

[man speaking indistinctly]

[Jim] Our press information officer

approached me and said,

"Sheriff, this is bigger

than I can handle."

"Would you take it over?"

[dramatic music playing]

Sometimes the man at top

just has to, uh, man up and-- and do it.

Authorities still don't know for sure

whether he was ever inside the balloon,

although his, uh, brothers

who are outdoors

[Jim] I met Richard,

Mayumi, and the children,

and Richard decided that he wanted

to go out and address the media.

[Richard] I did not wanna talk

to the press,

but they told me,

"If you don't talk to them,

give them something,

they'll follow you around for two weeks."

And I thought, "Oh my f*cking God."

I said, "Well, can you come out with me?"

This is Richard, the father.

He's, obviously, a little, uh, intimidated

with all these cameras and stuff,

so be gentle, all right?

[Richard] So I had to transition

from all that crap that just happened.

I tried to have a good composure.

I really, really wanna thank

the local police department

of Larimer County.

But all I wanted to do

was run back in the house.

I wanna thank the news helicopters

that were helping out in the search.

It was weird because they were rung out,

but they also seemed kind of disconnected.

Okay, uh, any other questions?

We needed our time.

I needed to cherish the time with my son

after what just happened.

But people kept pushing me

and pushing me and pushing me.

You know, "Go do this interview.

Go do that."

So I agreed to this one producer,

"Yeah, fine,

I'll do the show, uh, for Larry King."

-[tense music plays]

-[timer beeps]

It was set to be in the evening.

Camera guys, sound guys walked in,

directors, producers.

I said, "Richard, when you go

on Larry King, it's worldwide."

And he was like,

"It's okay, we can handle it."

[Richard] I felt nervous.

My kids were confused.

But I felt a sense of, uh, pressure

that I had to keep going.

Not only that

[sputtering] it was live television.

[theme music plays]

We wanna welcome our viewers

in the US and around the world.

I'm Wolf Blitzer

sitting in for Larry tonight.

Wanna go right out

to Fort Collins, uh, Colorado.

I don't know if Falcon can hear me,

but was he--

'Cause I know, at some point,

he fell asleep in that garage.

Did he hear you screaming out,

"Falcon, Falcon"?

Uh, he's asking, Falcon, did you hear us

calling your name at any time?

-Mm.

-You did?

You did?

Why didn't you come out?

Um

You guys said that, mm

we did this for the show.

Man.

-[tense music plays]

-No.

Wait, what did he say?

[sighs]

[Richard] My earpiece was

super, super loud.

I got a major hiss,

and I don't know what he said.

So I kind of blew it off,

like, you know, "What-- Whatever he said."

Our reaction was like a

"What?" [chuckles]

I remember I was shocked when he said, um,

we did this for a show, Falcon.

I didn't know

what the f*ck he was talking about.

I looked at Dean,

and I thought, "Here it goes."

"It's gonna take

a whole new other spin now,

from that one little comment."

[producer] I appreciate it was hard

to hear, but I think you did hear him,

because you say, "Man."

Well, yeah,

I mean, I did hear him faintly,

but I didn't understand anything he said.

[Wolf] What-- What did he mean,

"We did this for the show"?

Um, I have no idea.

I think he was talking

about the, uh, media.

They've been asking him

a lot of questions.

He's only six, just six years old,

and people read into that

whatever f*ck' thoughts

they wanted to read into.

[ominous music playing]

And after that is when everything blew up.

[dramatic string music plays]

"Did it for a show." Everyone's wondering

what exactly did he mean. The family says

[texts chiming]

All that money wasted looking for a boy

that was naughty. Get the man.

I think it's crazy how I was able

to just say a single sentence

and affect the whole state of the country.

[male reporter] From the ordeal in the air

to an ordeal on air

with one pressing question,

"Was it all an elaborate hoax?"

The family are gonna get in trouble.

[texts chime]

[grunts uncomfortably]

[sputtering] It was like

the biggest nightmare ever.

And I'm like, "Oh my God."

-[music fades]

-[dramatic sting]

In the morning, we all asked Falcon,

"What are you talking about?"

[chuckles nervously]

Falcon said, uh,

before the interview happened,

so many cameramen

was in the garage asking Falcon

how did he get up in the attic.

"Can you show me?"

[male reporter] Falcon,

that's how you get up, through there?

[people talking indistinctly]

[Falcon] I still remember

that reporter's face vividly.

[laughs]

I remember his face,

and I remember him asking me the question,

"Could you show me

how you go up there for my show?"

And I said, "Yeah, sure."

[young Falcon talking indistinctly]

[Richard] I do remember going,

like, "Oh my God."

"I'd better get on some other show

to prove

that it was not a publicity stunt."

Richard, Mayumi, Falcon,

brothers Bradford and Ryo.

You know, the message boards

are lit up this morning with skeptics.

-[tense, intriguing music playing]

-You had said, "We did this for a show"?

There were a lot of cameras

out front-- in front of our yard,

and we were, of course, uh,

getting interviewed.

[Diane Sawyer] Falcon, you okay there?

I think they really thought

it'd help them.

Mom, I feel like I'm gonna vomit.

[Mayumi] Oh

But then Falcon

starts getting sick being on TV.

He doesn't wanna do this,

and, now, it's playing out

almost like a circus sideshow.

[Richard] Should we take you

to the bathroom?

Yeah.

[Dean] You'd thought they'd have said,

"We're gonna go to a commercial

while he gets himself together."

No! No. They just went at it, you know.

[Diane] Is he okay?

Is somebody gonna go with him?

Mayumi, do you wanna run with him?

That's okay.

-Is that okay?

-[Diane] Sure.

-Okay.

-[Diane] We understand.

-[Falcon coughing]

-[Mayumi] Thank you.

[Tina] Falcon's poor little body

is upset, distressed,

and he's throwing up,

and questions are coming at them.

And I feel like I have to go out

and defend them.

They are, um, inventors.

They want that type of attention,

not about their-- their babies being lost.

This was not a joke.

So I was, you know, giving them

the benefit of the doubt.

[indistinct conversations]

The local and national news

starts to report on who the Heenes are.

Richard Heene claims

he's a storm chaser and an inventor.

[reporter 1] His kids apparently use

foul language a lot.

I mean, there are a lot of things

that jump out as red flags.

[reporter 2] Richard Heene

says he's chosen to raise his family

unafraid of adventure.

-[shouting indistinctly]

-[Mayumi chuckles]

And then you find out that the guy

and his wife were on Wife Swap.

-[music ends]

-[dramatic whoosh]

[Richard] Did you not sign up

to swap lives with another woman?

[loudly] Did you? Did you?

No, I'm talking. I asked a question.

-[amusing music plays]

-[softly] She wants to get down.

Are you getting down

or are you sitting down?

I was on the TV show Wife Swap

with Richard and Mayumi Heene.

It's gonna be a new adventure, yeah!

[Sheree] When I saw

the flying saucer on the TV, I thought,

"I don't know why they were saying

the kid was in the balloon,

but I knew that he wasn't."

[female producer] How did you know

that he wasn't?

I'm a psychic.

[dramatic music plays]

[Richard] The bottom line is you're lazy,

and you don't wanna do a damn thing.

And you suck!

When I saw the balloon,

what went through my head was,

"Richard did this purposely."

That was my first reaction.

I told you no meat.

He was trying to get attention.

Look at you, man!

Richard, I told you no meat.

You'll be cleaning it up--

[gentle piano music plays]

But as I got

to know Mr. Heene on the show,

I saw that he was a very caring person

about his children.

And I just couldn't imagine

that he would purposely say

-that his son was in the balloon.

-[music ends]

Boys!

[Mayumi and boys laughing]

[Jim] Realizing that they had

some exposure to television

made it possible

that the emotions they expressed,

as this incident unfolded,

were acting and were not genuine.

-[female producer] Had you seen Wife Swap?

-No.

And as you can tell from my attire,

I'm kind of into the Western genre.

You know, the values

in those early television shows,

those are kind of my values, you know,

truth, honesty, the American way.

People were accusing us

of being fame-hungry

because we were on Wife Swap,

which is completely not true.

I'd have never done Wife Swap

in a million years.

It sounded gross to me,

but then they offered to pay us.

And we needed money.

-[intriguing music plays]

-[reporters clamoring]

[Richard] On Friday,

there was so much backlash coming in,

and everybody starts criticizing us.

And we needed a way to prove to everybody

yeah, it was a real,

accidental thing that happened,

and it was very, very dangerous.

And that's why we released those clips.

A Fox News alert,

it's a brand-new video just in to Fox.

We've got some home video, we're told,

that shows the moment that

that notorious balloon left the ground.

Look, it's a real project.

We didn't make this stuff up.

-Mayumi, the tethers! You didn't put

-[Mayumi] What?!

[Robert] When I saw that, I thought

the emotion that Richard showed

seemed so over the top

and really playing for a camera.

[reporter] In the following chaos,

Richard Heene

doesn't seem to hear his older son,

who repeatedly yells,

"Falcon is in the ship!"

-[Bradford] Dad, Falcon's in there!

-[Richard] Where?

-[Bradford] In the ship!

-[Richard and Mayumi] What?!

It was reality television show-acting.

[reporter] This video is only gonna

add fuel to the fire, perhaps,

that this could, in fact, be a hoax.

The police insisted yesterday

they didn't think it was.

They said they weren't gonna file

[Richard] Some comments said,

"They're faking it."

I'm like, "You gotta be sh1tting me."

"There's no way."

Look at it.

I mean, there wasn't, like, you know,

some kind of production.

-[screams]

-You didn't put the tether down.

-Jesus Christ!

-Falcon was in there! Falcon was in there!

[Richard] I was yelling at him

because I was beyond angry.

It was completely 100% real.

And I just thought giving these guys clips

would, uh, solve the issue,

but it didn't.

[tense music plays]

Come here.

Okay, see that?

There's light out there,

a lot of light, okay?

How-- How are we gonna sleep?

Look at this.

I told them, "No more interviews."

"The story's done. We're done."

But they're still out there.

[door knocker clacking]

[male reporter] Mr. Heene,

please come out.

[Richard] Saturday rolls around,

and right around noon I get a call

from, I believe it was, Heffernan,

uh, stating I could come down

to the sheriff's office

and pick up my flying saucer.

So I went down. I was excited.

"Hey, I'm gonna get my flying saucer."

And then he says,

"Before I give you your flying saucer,

mind if I ask you a few questions

so we can clear things up?"

And he asked me

if I wouldn't mind taking a polygraph.

[music ends]

I had no intention of ever releasing

the balloon to him at this point,

but I did use that tactic

to get his cooperation

to come into the sheriff's office.

[talking indistinctly]

That was a message I tried to leave him,

that I believed him,

we believed him,

and we're on the same side.

[female producer]

What are you actually thinking?

Well, actually, I'm thinking I'm hoping

that we can get him on a polygraph

and, you know, get an admission.

I can just imagine you

walking out of here today,

going up to those cameras

and giving them the what-for,

and say, "Guess what?

I took the polygraph and I passed it."

[suspenseful music plays]

I'm feeling,

"Okay, I'll take the polygraph."

"I'll pass, I get my flying saucer,

and I go home."

When you spoke to 911, did you know

Falcon was not in the balloon?

No.

Okay, I gotta get some circulation here.

[Jim] It was obvious Mr. Heene

was employing countermeasures.

You know, tensing up, uh,

not answering questions directly,

but having to think of them

and doing some mind exercises,

as well as almost comically pretending

to fall asleep.

These are the published techniques

of things that you can do

to try to defeat a polygraph.

Can I stand up for a second? I gotta

God, this

-What's up?

-No, I'm just dozing off.

[operator] Okay.

[Richard] I'm really tired.

I believe it was something

like 50, 54 hours I hadn't slept.

[operator] Take some deep breaths.

-Good.

-Good?

[Richard] And I've been a diabetic

since I was 15 years old.

So I prick my finger, I test myself,

and my blood sugar has skyrocketed.

Okay, Richard, you are gonna have to focus

and concentrate.

And then, uh, he gets upset.

So really, really focus

on keeping your eyes open.

[Richard] I don't know why he's upset.

I'm answering everything truthfully,

everything that he asked me.

The polygraph was inconclusive.

I couldn't get a reading because

of the countermeasures that he employed.

-[reporters clamoring]

-[camera shutters clicking]

So now we transition to Mayumi.

Mayumi is brought

into the sheriff's office,

and we're gonna try

to give her a polygraph.

[Bob] We're talking to Richard too,

so we're getting both stories, okay?

[Mayumi] After the polygraph,

Bob Heffernan said,

"Your polygraph has failed."

And, uh, I said, "Really?"

I wish, uh

I really wish, uh, one of us

can stay with the kids,

but that may not happen.

[Bob] She was tearful

and proceeded to tell me

that, "Yes, this was a hoax,"

and she was, in fact, making a confession.

Did you guys build this

for the purpose of this hoax?

Is that the whole purpose of building it?

Um, honestly,

this, uh, uh, experiment itself

was not only for this.

Back then, my English was worse,

and the word "hoax" itself,

I misunderstood.

[Bob] This was all a a hoax, okay.

[Jim] She had

a degree in English from Japan,

went to three more years of college

in the United States.

There was not a language barrier.

[Bob] You're finally saying,

"Yeah, we lied,

and the reason it was a hoax is

we were just trying

to make ourselves marketable."

I also learned that the Heenes

had been working very hard

to try to get themselves a TV show.

It would be helpful

if they ended up in the news

or got their name out there somewhere.

And I think

that's what their motivation was

for this whole hoax.

That makes no sense.

-[music fades]

-Why would I even consider doing something

that's gonna turn on me,

potentially sending me to jail?

Like, how am I gonna get

a TV show doing that?

[Bob] Did you tell the boys

what you were doing?

We told them.

[Bob] How'd you get them

to go along with it?

Did you just ask them to act like

their brother got up in the balloon?

Yeah.

Something like that.

After her interview, I had enough

to proceed with criminal charges.

[dramatic string music plays]

[reporter 1] They're heading back

to the house right now.

[reporter 2] Last night, police seized

evidence from the Heene home,

and of the four charges the department

hopes to file over the next few days,

two are Class 4 felonies,

which carry up to six years of jail time

and $500,000 in fines.

[dramatic sting]

[Richard] We go from Thursday

being an emergency situation

to Sunday, now, we're wanted felons.

And a woman approached me,

gave me a number and said,

"You should call this attorney.

His name's David Lane."

[David] It's the Sunday

after the incident,

and they came in from Fort Collins.

It was very clear

that Richard and Mayumi loved those kids

with all their s-- their hearts and souls.

Mayumi's English was-- was not good, um,

so we were explaining words to her,

like "hoax" and "fraud."

[Bob] You assumed he was in the attic?

No, I didn't.

And then I saw the video

of Mayumi's so-called "confession."

It really wasn't a confession.

[Bob] Where was Falcon?

Was Falcon in the attic?

[intriguing music playing]

I really didn't know.

When you're dealing with someone

without a good grasp of the language,

these leading questions

are pretty much guaranteed

to get false statements

out of a-- a suspect.

[Bob] And you knew

he was somewhere in the house,

but you didn't know

he was up in the attic?

No.

I told David Lane, I said,

"I am not confessing

to these charges. No way."

He said, "Before you do anything,

what you gotta do

is go look into the case of Tim Masters."

Tim Masters is innocent, all right?

[people cheering and applauding]

[David] I represented Tim Masters

in a lawsuit

against the prosecutors in Larimer County

for a m*rder he didn't commit.

[male reporter] Masters was convicted

of k*lling a woman

whose body had been found near his home.

His attorneys claimed

prosecutors withheld crucial evidence

from the defense,

an allegation

the district attorney denies.

[tense music plays]

[David] I was thinking,

"These cops are corrupt."

He was falsely imprisoned for ten years.

And I'm like,

"Oh I'm not going through this."

I thought there's a good chance

they're getting screwed

by the system here.

I'll work pro bono,

and we can work out details later.

And I'll jump in and see what I can do.

David Lane's known throughout Colorado

for being anti-police.

I can tell you the Larimer County

Sheriff's Office is not corrupt,

nor was

the Fort Collins Police Department,

nor is the judicial system

in Larimer County.

They were interested

in getting convictions.

And when you have

a media frenzy like you had here,

it could result in an injustice

for Richard and his family.

Until I can look at what the evidence is

in this case,

you know, uh, we're left in the dark

in terms of what the Sheriff's Department

claims they've got.

I don't think a whole lot of David Lane.

He's-- He's a media wh*re.

I didn't think they had anything.

[music fades]

Then the DA comes to us

with this so-called deal.

They said, "Richard, we want you

to take a felony conviction."

"We want you to agree to 30 days in jail."

"If you do that,

Mayumi can plead to a misdemeanor

that will not cause her

to be deported back to Japan."

And I'm thinking to myself,

"You m*therf*ckers."

"You're gonna-- You're threatening

to deport the kids' mom?"

You know. "Over this?"

"What the hell's wrong with you people?"

[intriguing music plays]

[Mayumi] If I try to fight in the court,

and if I lose it,

I might need to leave country.

And then, which means,

I won't be able to see kids,

I won't be able to see Richard.

[Jim] Nothing like that

ever came from my office.

And knowing the district attorney as I do,

it's highly inconceivable

that they would have pressured them

to accept a plea deal.

So we're facing

all these felonies and misdemeanors

that could result

in Mayumi getting deported.

It could result

in our children being taken away.

Uh, I go to jail.

What the hell are we gonna do?

-[dramatic sting]

-How are the kids doing, Richard?

[Richard] So we go to court,

and I told David,

"I am not going to plead guilty.

Why can't I fight this?"

He goes, "Well, you can,

and I could probably win."

"But your wife,

you need to think about her."

[sputtering] And I'm like,

"I can't plead guilty."

[music fades]

Good morning, Your Honor.

How do you plead?

[David] Guilty.

[judge] Mr. Lane, I've read the file

[Richard] Then I thought, "I need this

over and done with as fast as possible."

[sputtering] We've gotta push this aside,

so we can get on with our lives.

[tense music playing]

Richard and Mayumi Heene, the couple

behind the now infamous Balloon Boy Hoax,

well, they now know their fate.

[male reporter] Richard Heene

will spend 30 days in jail.

His wife received a 20-day sentence.

She will sign in at the jail each day,

but then go out

to perform community service.

[David] Richard took one for the family.

I'm a crier, sorry.

This really brings some tears to my eyes.

-[female producer] Why is that?

-It's just so unfair.

The motto at the sheriff's office is,

"You lie, you die."

There's no second chances.

[Bradford] When my dad went to jail,

it, like, really hit me.

In a way, kind of my fault

because I overreacted a ton.

I kept telling him Falcon was in there

because I believed he was in there,

and he wasn't. [chuckles uncomfortably]

[sniffles]

I remember feeling bad

that I did something wrong

[reporters clamoring in video]

but just looking back on it now,

it's like I-- I was six years old,

and all these adults took whatever I said,

and they're able to just string together

what they thought was something else

and make it so, so big.

It's-- It's like-- It's baffling.

[music ends]

[dramatic sting]

[Richard] I finished my jail time.

I'm done. I finished it.

And I called my probation officer,

and I'm like, "I wanna move."

There's just too much attention.

It's too much.

I mean, there were, uh, neighbors,

there was the press.

I wanted all those f*cking people

just to go away.

And so we left.

[Falcon] I had to get out of school.

I had to stop seeing my friends.

And that, like, really makes me mad, like

Like, how did-- how did this happen,

you know?

[intriguing music plays]

[Tina] The last time we saw the Heenes

was just prior to them going away.

I knocked on the door. They didn't answer.

We tried to talk to the boys.

The boys would say,

"Hi, we can't talk to you anymore."

Um, it felt very hurtful at that point.

I had my mind set that it was a hoax.

It's kind of crazy

to imagine that this is where he was.

Then he fell asleep.

Richard pulled

on the heartstrings of our family.

He pulled on the heartstrings of a nation.

He pulled on the heartstrings

of the world.

That was so unfair.

So unfair for somebody to do that.

Richard just played us all.

[chuckles in disbelief]

[music fades]

[Sheree] I think everybody has

a belief system,

and they like to say

this is who someone is.

But people like Richard

are not regular people.

They're complicated.

So if you think you know him,

you probably don't.

[pensive string music plays]

[Richard] After this whole incident,

we came to Florida

[dogs barking]

and started a new life.

We found this place,

and this place feels like a fortress.

It's a place where you can hide

and just forget about what happened.

Good boy! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

To get pardoned makes a statement

in that, you know, I'm a good person.

Everything that you said about me before

was not true.

That's how I feel about it.

This one, we gotta cut right here.

[Jim] I was surprised

the governor pardoned him

without reaching out

to us in law enforcement

or anybody that had been involved.

The thing that upset me is

that he did it without having Richard make

any sort of admission as to his guilt.

We-- We want the water to flow

the whole span

[Mayumi] After the pardon,

I became a US citizen officially.

[Richard laughs]

And now, I don't need to worry

about being separated

from kids and my husband.

[Richard] Guys, I wanna see

what this looks like. Seriously.

With the flying saucer coming to an end,

it's kind of a sad story

because I loved it.

But that doesn't hold me back.

All right.

I like it.

I'm working on something new

[music fades]

and it's gonna be really big.

-[female producer] Really?

-Yeah. [laughs]

[tense music playing]

[dramatic string music plays]