Shenanigans

Charges Ahead for Balloon Dad

Assistant: Heene dad planned "media stunt."

Colorado officials announced Saturday night that criminal charges will be filed against the father whose balloon captivated a nation last week, believing that a six-year-old boy was board. Whatever the truth is, one of these guys is going to come out looking pretty terrible. A former assistant to Richard Heene, father of balloon boy Falcon Heene, has offered a long narrative of his former boss’ tyrannical eccentricity in his quest to get another TV show after his appearance on Wife Swap. In a post for Gawker, the assistant and self-described web entrepreneur, Robert Thomas, alleges that Heene planned to manufacture a UFO controversy “bigger than Roswell,” and to create show episodes that would “shock people and maximize his exposure.” Thomas says it’s impossible that 6-year-old Falcon could hide in the tiny Heene attic, and furthermore, that given the family’s lack of discipline, Falcon would have never had the inclination to hide from punishment even if he could. (In what some suspected was an unintentional slip, Falcon told CNN, “we did it for the show.”)