FORT COLLINS, COLO. — A runaway balloon purportedly holding a 6-year-old boy was actually a publicity stunt intended to get the family a reality-television show, but instead could result in felony charges, authorities said Sunday.
Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said at a news conference that the boy's parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, had planned the charade for at least two weeks before launching the homemade balloon Thursday. Alderden said his office was likely to recommend that the parents be charged with felonies.
He said they may have had help, even from some entertainment media.
"There is absolutely no doubt in our minds that this was a hoax," said Alderden, who had defended the family until his office interviewed the Heenes over the weekend.
The Heenes have not been arrested and have insisted they perpetrated no hoax.
On Sunday, a reporter from the Associated Press confronted them as they shopped at a local Wal-Mart. The AP reported that Richard Heene teared up and said the family was "seeking counsel."
"This thing has become so convoluted," he told the AP.
Later Sunday, David Lane, a Colorado 1st Amendment attorney, said in a statement that the Heenes had retained him and that he had advised them to turn themselves in and to stop talking to the media.
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Suspicions coalesce
Thursday's search for the balloon and its supposed passenger, Falcon, riveted the nation for hours. Another Heene boy said he saw his brother crawl into the balloon's basket before it launched.
The contraption, put together with cardboard, plywood and duct tape, sailed for 50 miles, shutting down flights at Denver International Airport, leading the Air National Guard to mobilize and making the family a media sensation.
But after the spaceship-shaped balloon landed -- empty -- in a field 50 miles away, Falcon turned up safe at home. He said he had hidden in the garage because his father was angry at him for playing with the balloon.
The sheriff said at the time that he believed the Heenes. But skepticism grew in the neighborhood and the media.
On "Larry King Live" Thursday night, Falcon was asked why he had stayed in hiding so long. Falcon turned to his parents, saying: "You said we were doing this for a show."
Alderden described that statement as "our first 'aha' moment."
