The balloon boy story has taken unexpected turn.  Balloon Boy, the aptly named Falcon Heene, initially implicated the story as a hoax during a CNN interview.  And while the father, Richard Heene, later claimed to have no knowledge of a hoax, the mother, Mayumi, has allegedly informed investigators that she and her husband knew all along that Falcon was hiding in the house.  The hoax which involved the family of weather chasers and ET seekers, a large silver flying-saucer shaped balloon and a 2-hour manhunt is now under investigation by the police and the FBI.  So what would cause a family to engage in such an elaborate cry for attention?  In this author's opinion...unfulfilled dreams and a tendency towards the abnormal.

For those who might have been hiding under a rock over the last couple of weeks and may have missed the story, let me recap briefly.  Last Thursday, October 15, the nation sat captivated as the police launched a 2-hour manhunt for Falcon, who's parents claimed that he was last seen in a compartment of the family's silver weather balloon and blew away with the balloon when it became un-tethered.  The police and FBI used media and National Guard helicopters to track the UFO shaped balloon only to have it land in a field without the boy.  Witnesses claimed that they saw something fall from the balloon, but in actuality were probably suffering from overactive imaginations.  The police tracked the stories and even temporarily closed the Denver airport only to later find out Balloon Boy had been hiding in a cardboard box in his family's attic or garage.  His exact location depends on which story you read.

Aside from the obvious, the whole situation calls into question not only the sanity of the family, but also the logic of the police department and authorities involved in this situation.  Richard Heene, a supposed experienced weather "scientist" who rides a motorcycle into storms, didn't properly tether the balloon? And this whole event should occur just months after the family appeared on "Wife Swap"?  Makes you wonder.  Not only does an experienced scientist know that there are certain precautions that should be taken when operating such "equipment", but also that he needs to be certain of where the people around him are at any given time.  But perhaps, the Balloon man was not so much of a scientist as an inexperienced weather chaser, a former would be actor with a failed film editing company who appeared not once, but twice on "Wife Swap".  In addition, he had appeared on various other scientific shows about weather chasers.  And the mother?  Mayumi, known to the family as "ninja" because she drives the storm-mobile on their chases, is also a former actor who seems destined to follow her husband into whatever hell he has determines necessary to fulfill his dreams; dangerous storms, balloon hoaxes and all.  In fact the two met in acting school in Hollywood.  Apparently, their acting skills bona fide; they were able to convince almost an entire nation, the police and the FBI that their son had flown off in their experimental weather balloon.  In addition to the failed attention from "Wife Swap", the family had a show in the works with ABC which fell through and TLC refused a proposal from the father to do a reality show.  Some people will do anything for their 15 minutes of fame.

There is already something that is inherently problematic about the families of those who participate in "Wife Swap".  The children are usually uncontrolled rugrats or are under so strict a lifestyle that they embody new-age Puritans.  The husband and wife are generally lacking in communication and sometimes bedroom skills and the women who do the swapping enact such extreme rules that it drives their new family into chaos, rebellion and sometimes tears.  I confess that I have ventured to watch a few episodes of the show and am consistently appalled at the unstructured or super-structured environments these families operate in.  Just once, I'd like to see what happened if the husband's swapped.  The show makes you wonder what kind of family it is that thinks swapping wives is even healthy.  If the Heene's are any indication we're all in trouble.  The strange family was so popular the first time around that the American viewing audience voted them to make a second appearance on the show's 100th Episode.

Aside from the bizarre behavior of the Heene's, one also has to wonder about the bizarre behavior of the police department.  I'm not even sure the police bothered to check the home before launching a huge and expensive manhunt.  If that's their usual protocol, they might want to re-evaluate the SOP's and make some revisions.  It's not that they shouldn't have followed the balloon, but they might have decreased the headache for themselves if they had one group of officers search the house and another group follow that balloon.  It would appear that there was some skepticism on behalf of the police department as well; the family was under investigation even before Balloon Boy launched (pun intended) allegations of a hoax during the CNN interview.

The Heene's are getting their 15 minutes of fame amidst this balloon saga.  But they are also getting some unwanted attention from the police that could net them some jail time and prevent them from profiting on this whole shenanigans in the first place.  The police have stated that charges against the Heene's could include conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, making false charges and could include retribution to the state for the costs incurred.  I guess we should all just be grateful that the Heene's didn't claim that their son was abducted by aliens. The police allegedly took a picture of a flying saucer out of the Heene's home during their search and the family researches extraterrestrials in their spare time.  Imagine the national chaos that would have arisen had the police gone on a manhunt for a boy abducted by aliens.  All this in a week defined by runaway balloons, pilots forgetting to land their airplanes.  As someone on www.textsfromlastnight.com put it, "I'm glad balloon boy was found.  I though it was Michael Jackson ordering takeout from heaven."