In 2009, a strange news story caught the attention of millions across America. A silver balloon was floating through the sky, and many believed a six-year-old boy named Falcon Henne was trapped inside. This event quickly became known as the “Balloon Boy” incident, and the man at the center of it was Richard Henne. Who Is Richard Henne? Richard Henne … Read More
This Kid Got Stuck in a Balloon | Balloon Boy Ep 281
Episode Transcription
00:00 Hey man, happy to be here. What's up? You lie to me right now. Hey, hey, the last time we recorded you were like almost a dad. 00:10 Yeah, I was now you're like for just a normal person. You're for real and that's crazy. Holy cow! All right, roll the intro. I just want to spend a little bit of time on it. We don't need to do okay. Yeah, you're fine. Cut the intro, cut the I'm so sick of you being like and listen here's what's going to happen. The whole episode tends to be like I'm tired. I don't know. Oh sorry, I have a baby at home. All right now roll the intro. 00:35 it gets floating in this blue and it makes national yeah a story. This gets our seven thousand feet distance. That's seven thousand so we're to beat out to do boy float seven thousand subway sandwiches in the sky. Boy float seven thousand spicy Italian 00:57 Things I learned last night. 01:05 it again. talking back. Welcome back to things that last night. I'm tired. Anyways, have you ever heard of yeah? What's up? Have you ever heard of God? I got to remember this guy's have you? Have you ever heard of a Richard Henny, Richard Henny, Richard Henny? Okay, I see what he looks like. Here he is sure for audio listeners. It's a middle aged man with long hair. Okay, 01:33 Yeah, my wife has been listening to the episodes recently and she said you guys don't describe the images enough, so I'll describe them. Yeah, thank you. It's a guy who looks divorced for sure and he looks like he probably teaches a karate class, even though he does not have the credentials to do so yeah and he makes everyone calm sensei whether they're in the class or not. white guy, you don't have to say that white guy with a pony tail and yep. 02:02 He yeah yeah, so Richard Henny and his family, he the name sounds familiar. Yeah, you might. You might know this story. I would expect you to know this story honestly. sure, Richard Henny. He is a guy who's known for like he's got a lot of hobbies, but hobbies that are kind of encroach on. You know what I was thinking about this when I was watching his story. He was like a serial entrepreneur in like the like 02:31 nineties, two thousands and so he was constantly like hawking product hawking prod yeah, but like this is the kind of stuff he was doing so like yeah, he drinks he had the bear scratch. So here's a commercial he made for the bear scratch, which is this thing you mount on your wall and you can scratch your back. It looks like he got rich from it though, because this is much. This is like so before hit the before picture. If you don't, if it's he's younger, 03:00 he's got to go t yeah and definitely early two thousand he coated. So this is literally a product that you put on the corner of the wall yeah and you can make the wall you better to back back with yeah. If you want to know that bear scratch dot com still live still looks like this still can buy the bears, she back dirty hands can't read the funniest line I've ever heard it she back dirty can't find your back scratcher 03:28 No problem. Scratch your back with no hands using bears. Now sure, you could probably use the corner. You know, sure. You could probably use the door. Sure. You could probably lay on the floor and do against the rug. Sure. You could have a spouse or your wife or a friend. Scratch your back, itchy back, dirty hands can reach divorced. 03:59 no pro bear scratch mounts on the wall, so it is always thing. That is how mounting works this for the more I was saying the more it's like just has someone do it man. The more the worse there, more is just like the sadder order is just use literally any quarter, but he was talking this product. He's another product. He hot was this. It was the henny duty. What the henny duty? 04:29 and it was basically like a lift. You could load a bunch of stuff in there and lift it into your truck bed. Yes, it was a honey duty okay, and so he sold this thing. He had a bunch of ads yeah. It's like a car and you can like Jack it up and then just slide everything in your truck. Yeah, I honey duty this genuinely that's a good idea. That's okay. We can allow that, but like everything he did. He had all these concepts and he would make these like super cheesy to early two thousands like 04:59 or now like ads yeah, and it got me thinking about here's also go back to the other picture the honey duty yeah. Don't have friends. It'll help you load the back of the truck. You know I'm saying like do you have to do everything in your life yourself? I've made products for you. You can't get your own. This the original in cell culture seller right here. 05:26 straight up like this is like. Do you need to load the back of the truck by yourself and you don't have anyone to help you yeah you have the lit like I think the best thing about it too is this like a two thousand one maybe even a ninety nine pickup truck. So it's not like it's that far off the ground yet right before they got absurd before they were too big like that was totally a feasible truck for you to lift yourself anyway. So like but that's the thing I was thinking about this like nowadays and I think I'm trying to figure out why this changed, but like nowadays 05:55 your serial entrepreneur, whereas they're selling crypto and they're like finance bros and all that stuff. Back then, they were inventors. I was like, I want to show you my new invention. And then they had all these ads and they were always like kooky guys like that. Like honestly, genuinely, they seemed like a character in the McDonald's TV show that you get the VHSs from. Like that's how they act. They're caricatures. I hear a couple of reasons. One, now if you put that level of capital into something, 06:25 knockoff will immediately show up on TikTok shop and knock you out of business. So once that happened to a couple of people, they were like, I'm not going to take the risk of the capital of putting that up. The other thing was what you're saying is like people just realized that they could try to day trade and do that kind of stuff and do the crypto and make their money that way. Like investors aren't investing in these kinds of guys. Yeah, 100%. Well, I think that's my thing is like it used to be if you wanted to build a 06:54 you would have to invent something. But now it's like you just kind of play around on the internet. Yeah. And like fake stuff online. Well, there was also a time where even just having that simple webpage was enough to set you apart from any kind of competition. Now, I mean, it really is, I do think it's the resellers. think it's that guy. Because when you see, there's that girl who did the... This would be so easy to just fake for like 20 cents and throw it on Tmoo. 07:24 and then it's like eleven dollars, you know, and it's just like yeah, yeah, it's just easy yeah, so that's part of it. I mean, I just think of all the products that there was a also people don't buy the way they used to people don't like people are either more selective or I mean, I will say he he does seem like he's adapted to the times. Here's a more recent video. He made a music video. This is for a character he came up with called aluminum man. So what's he selling here? 07:53 I don't know if he's so anything. I just think you wanted to make a music video. I think you just made a music video because I here's just made a music a music video called aluminum man yeah and I think I think that was like he's like he's like I'll make it in the music industry. Okay, so he's aluminum man. 08:06 Yeah, and I think that, I think, because here's the point, he's trying to, I think he's trying to, I don't know if he's trying to make music or if he's trying to make money off That is interesting that you say that, because I mean, like, it just feels that there used to be a lot more, well, I mean, there's still like dumb little inventions, but like freaking, the fact that the Billy Mouth Bass became like a household item is insane to me. Well, yeah, I feel like the Asim on TV. I think it's part of, like, we used to just buy junk. I mean, I think people still do. 08:35 you know, I'm you know what I'm here. I'm realizing as sold on TV is now tick tock shop. It's the same kind of for sure crap that you don't need dude. I mean the number of people who are like yeah, I got this thing to hold the cup that already has a handle on it, but and you're like oh okay stuff. I'll see on tick tock shot like way yeah, it's pretty 08:56 bananas. You know what you should do instead of affiliate marketing is that here's what I have a referral bonus. If you if you get people who need content and we can help them make it and then we they sign up for our services, we'll give you a referral bonus for that. I have like more money doing that than you will sell a knickknacks. I have a theory about tick tock shop. I'd to hear it. I think that what is happening because all that stuff like you said is just pointless like yeah who's buying this? I think that there are 09:23 people who are buying lots of this stuff on TikTok shop and reselling it. And that's how they're laundering money and they're living their lives in Dubai because they're in drugs or arm trade or something like that. But they're buying a bunch of stuff on TikTok shop to make that their legal business. And then they're reselling it. That's my theory. So all these people that are like dancing on TikTok shop. 09:45 they're selling to the arms. Well, mattress firm is a front right yeah. I do a lot of car washes, lots of this is just fronts dentists. Yeah, a little bit of bad. Also a little bit of it was probably a reference yeah to an event that happened earlier in his life. I assume okay, because earlier in his life in two thousand nine, he what the point the picture I'm trying to portray is he was always inventing stuff, always running these experiments, okay, to see if he could create a new product sure and one day he started. He learned about weather balloons 10:14 and he started figuring. Is there a product or some way I could create something like that and have a product to market and so he made this weather balloon and it looks if you're listening, it looks like a ufo. It's like very ufo shaped balloon. It also looks like y'all ever seen those orval reddenbacher popcorn things you do on the stove yeah yeah. It does look a lot like that as exactly like, but just it takes up the whole back whole backyard yeah and 10:43 Is it sitting in two trampolines that have been taken apart? Yeah, so he does have this weird little array he built for it. This is just okay again, audio listeners. This is just like a suburban backyard, the most suburban backyard he's ever seen, and this thing takes up the entire thing. It's this, mean fairly large balloon like it's probably if I had a ballpark and I'd probably say it's like twenty feet across probably okay. 11:13 and if you had to Google it, what would it let me Google it by the ballpark that says twenty twenty feet and if I had to use the tool in front of me to figure out how exactly how big it is, I would say it's it was twenty feet in diameter, five feet high. Why you really did? I parked that that was a ballpark that you did bald park that take me out to the ball game. All right, all right, here we go. You nailed that 11:42 I was trying to give you crap that I freaking but I sent it I'll be on listener. I didn't see the Google search. He could have made that up. He could have looked at it and been like oh shoot. It says fourteen feet. It's way not for Google, so not twenty, so it's five feet tall. It's five feet tall, which is about that was tall. I am almost five. I do think of you all the time. There's a there's a store 12:11 right next to where my wife works. So annoying you this that I put on my story a couple weeks ago. It's a store. It's just there's no the official name of the store is it's called for men five eight and under that's the name on the that's side on the bill sign says four men five eight and under and every time I drive by I go Tim is how tall are you five eight that's what I thought. 12:39 but my five nine ballpark in the five eight, so I will never forget when I was in high school junior year. We got new football coaches and I could tell he's like we really going there. Do see you close his eyes and their his eyes like water a little bit like he did like that's like he was doing freaking edmr over here. He just or I am what if e m dr e m dr e m dr yeah yeah said edmr but asmr and e m dr edm 13:09 I'll never forget being in the coach's office. We got brand new coaches at summer football in the middle of training camp. And there was like one of the things we had to do is we had to go give our like stats, our height, our weight, our everything, because they were going to put together the booklet they give you at the games. And so we got our pictures taken and we went and the co are the new head coach was like, all right, what's your height? And I said, five, eight. And he looks at me and he's like, I'm putting five, 10. 13:37 and from that day on you were like I'm five ten you walked out of there and you were like you walked out of there feeling taller and that that's not what happened. I want power healing five. He went I'm gonna put five ten and then you walked out of there feeling confident and you felt taller. I felt that's the power of a strong man speaking into a young man's life. Maybe you should look at young man next to you and say you look five ten say that to somebody anybody it 14:06 crushed me. I've all to the five biggest guy you can find in the store. You look at you look five ten and but look at him like this go and for the audio listener, I'm squinting my I got to describe 14:25 because my wife's going to get I told her my I told her I told my wife is that and I don't care if you're here. You search the topic and then you're like I got to talk about it. I find a part of you. That's some five nine behavior get tall, get tall. Are you nerd? So my wife says that this podcast does suck, but she said 14:53 she goes okay. Every time I listen, I can't tell what's happening. Yeah, guys, don't describe it. Look at pictures. Yeah, we want you to watch on you to listen to make more money from you on YouTube and then literally two days ago she was like yeah, she was. Oh, I there was another thing. I couldn't tell what's going on because I was listening and I said watch it on YouTube. That's where we make more revenue. Yeah, we don't make enough money from the downloads. I need you to be a YouTube and she went okay and then on our phone call last night she was like 15:23 so I was listening to the pocket right. I know you're listening right now, shut it off, turn it off, watch your eyes. Honestly, oh we pay for you to premium pull it up on the ad click lock. You can still listen to it and still listen to it, but we make no money when there's a video part every dollar counts. It counts in our I daddy needs a new jet. 15:52 like can we start being okay? Anyways, no, we got to talk about this. go ahead with that thought. We should start over so so he's been part where I talked about my wife. I don't want people to know I have one. 16:05 I want people to think I'm single wait a minute though. Wait a minute though. Wait a minute though. Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, 16:34 Yeah, that was that Ali. That was the worst reaction they could have had. I them going ha ha what the worst reaction would have been him going like this home building ha, putting his rings back on and be like I'm married to someone that like trying to tell them that yeah. This was a professional hug. This was business. Yeah, 16:57 this was we have you know we're like family at our job. We're like we're like family. We're like family and that I'm the dad and she's the mom and sometimes we kiss, but no one can tell our spouses like a family here a family, but if you tell your eight aka my wife, then I'm going to cut off your allowance because we're like a family aka your salary. That's crazy anyway, so Richard Richard and his family one day 17:27 way they're out there doing the little they're working on the the bullet yeah right changing the oil or whatever you do. I don't know to do with the balloon. I mean there's electric components in it. Sure he put those he put the high voltage sticker on so at least he's a responsible inventor okay and so he was hoping to sell this. I don't know what he expected one a hundred this balloon one a hundred balloons one a hundred big big balloon one hundred twenty foot big balloon. 17:53 and so I don't know what the intention was with this. I don't know if he's going to like scan some stuff. Maybe he's going to do some Google Earth thing. His self I don't know it's two thousand nine he's inventing. He's working on the balloon. His whole family's out there. You know what I think more though maybe I don't know. I'm thinking about why people don't invent stuff. I think it's just that people don't have the ability to take as big as risk as they used to. So I think because financial mobility is so limited where we are yeah in our current economy. 18:21 Yeah, that if you take too big of a swing, you'll fully end up a class lower. Yeah, that's where you are. Like if you, I think, I think that he was, he was an adult in the time where you could take bigger risks. And if you lost that money, it's kind of like, okay, well, I'm still fine. That is an interesting spot where people can't take that big of risk. Yeah. If you take a big risk, you could be, you could, you could really hose your life. Interesting. Interesting. 18:49 Yeah, I mean I will say to though like I feel like a lot of times maybe I don't know I bet her types. You know yeah, I think a lot of times though these inventor types weren't like like these in venture types were kind of people that were like lower middle class yeah like because they were trying. I think they they saw those are taken out yeah. Maybe it was like it was like instead of having a four one K. They had this crazy business idea also 19:21 You used to just sit around. 19:25 and think I guess that's true. Yeah, there wasn't a lot of stuff to take the people who probably would have invented some cool stuff or just scrolling or they have four jobs or they have four. Well, I'm talking about yeah, yeah, I'm sure they maybe they're maybe they're financially strapped. Maybe they're doing four jobs or maybe they're just scrolling tick tock. That's true. Yeah, they could be just like all the downtime like the average. What's the average American screen time? Look that up average American phone screen time. 19:49 Like per day or what do you want? Yeah, just say I'm sure that's the number I'll give you average daily screen time. I'm going to guess gosh average. I'm going to guess five hours. 20:04 Wow, this is I'm gonna do phone screen. Yeah, is it doing a total TV and everything? Yeah, I phone screen time I'm gonna guess five hours. What would you guys? 20:17 Yeah, probably like four or five hours for a lot of people. Yeah, for a lot of people. Did you hit a little bit of judgment in Alex's voice? Cause he's like, not me. mean, is it for a lot of really wide range because you have to think about like, that's true. You gotta think about people who do like 18 hours. Yeah. Like a lot of younger kids are going to be more technology centric. Sure. Yeah. And then like anyone that's, I mean, 40 and older has 20:45 developed very differently and is not... You say that. Yeah. I think they're all on their phones still. That's fair. I think they're all on their phones. Everyone's on their phones all the time. People who might have otherwise been inventing bear scratches. 21:02 think of all the useless items that were being robbed of because of frickin better. You found it yeah. I was just waiting for you guys to finish your conversation. The average on specifically just a phone in America adults. This is not including teens five over five hours and sixteen minutes per day. Wow! I ballparked that really well didn't 21:30 What did you say? I didn't say five hours. Did he really? Yeah, I thought he faked that you're right here. We don't even record this like mobile and some people, some people are audio listeners and they straight up come to shows and they're like yeah. How are you guys doing? Do you guys do like a over the zoom or something? I was like no, I'm watching on YouTube. I know I'm watching the video 21:53 So hey, we have a lot of audit. That's why I'm trying to be like hey guys, a lot of I, I Tim pull that image off the screen. What's that? Don't put that up there. What are you doing? Don't put that in the video. Get that off the screen. Tim, that's inappropriate for audio listeners. It's a picture of a 22:15 Yeah. Okay, so here's a picture of Richard and his family. He's got a family of three and his wife. They took a picture with his balloon. Okay, so one day they were out there in their backyard working on the balloon. What year is this now? This is 2009. This is 2009. I really do think it's the phones, man. I think that there's, you know, 2009 he had a Motorola Razor and a lot of downtime. Yeah. I really think that because like I just saw a video. I know we're going off on so many changes and I know the story we're getting to. It's actually pretty interesting. 22:44 but like dude freaking I saw a video before I came in here today about a guy who was just like our am I broken or like is every hobby that people go do sound really boring and people are like oh we threw axes or we went bowling or we went to a minor league baseball game and like he's like he's like I just all this stuff just seems boring to me. Well, I think the reason you say that is because I think most hobbies genuinely there's a reason why we call them pastimes. They're not fun. 23:14 You're just passing time. Oh, you're on that side. Yeah, I think there's nothing as stimulating as your device. I that's exactly I'm saying the same thing. Yeah. And so I'm saying like we've created something that bad will jack up your brain so much more than anything else. stimulate you so that things that previously were stimulating and community builders are no longer stimulating. Yeah. Conversations with people aren't stimulating enough anymore. Yeah, I don't like talking to you. 23:44 like not joking though. No, it's true, it's true like we'll be with friends. I will actively watch my friends lose interest in it the middle of something I'm doing right now. I'll see well. I'm a good story teller, so I keep interest, but like I'm really good at keeping that and and when I see people, I go oh you I'm still talking focus, focus, a little monkey. Hey right now you told me out you're like. I'm going to watch a different video. Thanks for watching on YouTube though, so 24:11 You get what I'm saying? We have to do weird stuff. But I'm saying straight up, we bowling was fun. There was a time where Rob Robbie, what's his name? Richard. Richard. Golly. Well, Richard would come home from work and would tinker. Yeah. And he would have fun with it. He would enjoy that. And like that was enjoy. People made model trains, bro. Yeah. You like model trains. I love model train. Dude, I think about this too, though. 24:41 Like, I play RuneScape. They've introduced so many things to RuneScape that make your leveling up go faster. And I was like, oh, this is cool, because I need this for a quest. But then I thought, oh, they changed that because people were like, oh yeah, this takes too long, because we don't get enjoyment out of tinkering anymore. And so maybe that's why that guy doesn't... Or people don't invent stuff like this. Maybe. Maybe. That may be one thing. Really? 25:10 I don't know. will say, will say it is interesting. I gotta keep going. You can just go back to the topic. Okay, I've already given my thoughts and actually I just super in yours. So you started talking and I was like, I'm I'm so I'm so you right now. Oh, I didn't want to say something interesting. I'm over stimulated. No, you're not. No, you're not. Nothing understimulated. I need some stimmy. 25:45 In the early days of this show, we did like affiliate ads where we were like a sign up for grammarly and use code till and and we got like fifteen cents and now we just do patreon. It's a much better way. It's better for us as creators. It's better for you as listeners and it's a much more fun way for us to interact. We do monthly hangouts like on zoom. We just hang out and play games online and and get to know each other. It's a really fun time so 26:12 but still use our code till in at grammerly dot com because I think it's still I might get like a couple cents from that, but join us on patreon because we're having a great time. If you don't, we're going to have to start doing mobile game ads. 26:29 that a lot talk. to handle silence. This is a total sidebar, but I did not realize this. I'm like looking for the names of his whole family because I realized I only know his wife and one of his son's names. Well, I'm in the middle of this episode, I'm here to give away what was happening here, moving through trying to find all of them, but then I found this article that's talking about how in the seventies he was a storm chaser and he because there was a storm that took the roof off a building. He was working on, so he got interested in storm chasing 26:58 and I guess as a part of his storm chasing career, and I wish that there was more information about this or a video or something I could watch, he chased a tornado and he rode a motorcycle into it for like research. That's all it says that's real. Yeah, I wonder what would happen if I ride this motorcycle into that tornado and there's no explanation of what happened. I'm guessing not good. I mean he lived. I mean he survived, but he has prior way. I will say that's why he's probably why his face looks like that 27:27 that guy looks like he's seen the center of a tornado from a motorcycle. I probably was wearing a helmet. He does had to be okay anyways, so one day him and his family. Here's a picture of his family. I showed you that they're all these people. This is so that's him Richard, his wife, my you me. I believe that's how you how you say that sure and then I know one of his sons. It's his youngest, the six year old in the middle. His name is Falcon first name legal first name. Oh here's the rest of names Bradford and then Rio. 27:57 as there is their legal names, spell Rio, R, Y, O, O, Rio Rio Rio, maybe Rio Rio Rio. I don't know. Okay, I thought that you were dumb for a second, but then I thought it was gonna be RIO and I was gonna be like yeah Rio, but but you were right. That was on me for assuming that sorry I was a stupid. Hey, I'm gonna put five ten hey buddy. I want you to know yeah 28:25 I'm really proud of you. Thanks man, I appreciate You're handling really well. I know that you're tired and I know that it's a lot of work. know this kid isn't... It's kind of like a spot where the kid is taking more than they're giving to the relationship and it's kind of tough. But I'm really proud of you for... This is really weird. not just skipping town. For not just what? Skipping town. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I could have. I think a lot of people... I'm proud of you for stepping up. Thanks. 28:54 Okay. What is this about? Is this a bit or what are you doing? No. Okay. There's the moment coming where he's going to pull the rug out and all right, whatever. Fine. Being genuine, whatever. Okay. Let's continue this podcast. That's so not whatever this was. So his family's doing this. 29:20 I'm really proud of you, man. I'm so excited that you had a kid and that you're doing well and that you're adjusting to this new life as a dad. And I know it's a lot. know it's like a really, it's a really big change and you're handling it really well, man. I'm just really proud of you. Thanks. What you're doing right now is big five, for G. You're really stepping into it. 29:46 I didn't think you had it in. I thought you were five eight, but what you're doing now shows me your five ten. You're doing great man. How it is a mindset. Don't let anybody tell you I was no, no, don't try deflecting jokes. I was trying to be serious. It seem like it, so they're working on the balloon in the backyard, falcon, ryo and bradford yeah and his wife and my whole family affair. They're all out there working on the big break. Yeah, they're working on this 30:13 This is in Fort Collins, Colorado, where they live at the time. A little bit of background, they lived in Hollywood. They met, him and his wife met in acting school. They got married in 97, later moved to Fort Collins. And they're working on this balloon as a family. And what they're doing is they're testing the pull cord, the release to launch. But they're not actually planning on launching it today. They're just testing the pull cord. So they've got it tethered down. But it's not going to launch today. They're just pulling that pull cord to make sure it's functioning properly. 30:43 And so they get ready do this test, they pull the test, and when they pull the pull cord, the balloon starts to lift off the ground. And what he realizes almost immediately, Richard realizes that his son Falcon, who had been messing with the tethers, had untied the tether and he didn't realize that his son had untied the tethers. And so the balloon literally just starts floating away. And so they try to get it, they can't get it, and it literally just lifts off, up off the ground. 31:10 and there's video of this because I think they had like a security camera in their backyard or something like that. Okay, so there's a video of this and you can see him like the dad kind of freaks out. I see it. I haven't pulled up. No, I don't have. What do you think? I can get it. Yeah, well, let me see it. I want to we can pause. Let let me get it. Here's the actual take off video. If you're listening, you're going to hear the audio of the take off video and then afterwards we're going to stop and chairs going to describe the whole right to memory. Okay, here we go easy. 31:39 So it's Fox News, Fox News alert. It's a breaking new video. I meant like after the video you're going to describe. like this better because because you can't I like this better. It's a little distracting if you're listening to the clip. Okay, here we go to the clip and then also watching. Okay, started over then we're just going to go to the point where no no no started over in the beginning. Okay, so we'll start over the getting now that you know what you're doing. is two thousand nine right two thousand nine. Yeah, here we go a new video just in the Fox. We've got some home video. We're told 32:09 that shows the moment that notorious balloon left the ground in Fort Collins, Colorado yesterday. There you can see Richard. This is so much. This is so much work for Robert to do. If we pause the video, but I don't care. You were like, I think they have a security camera or something as it's like clearly like I get like really his wife, just jolting the camera. remember what happened here. right. Yeah. All right. Sorry. Continue. He in the foreground there. We recognize him now. 32:38 He's of course the father of six-year-old Falcon Heeney. Look at the bottom. looks pretty much the way it looked when we saw it going through the sky, of a bucket there. mean, there it goes, okay? There goes. you know, they're watching it. This is part of their experiment, I assume. They're kind of excited and the other kids, can hear them. Now it's a little bit confusing as to what... Wait, go back a little bit though? Go back, uh, not that far. 33:05 Yes, you know they're watching it. This is part of their I can't tell and I assume they're kind of excited and other kids. know exactly what I'm about. know exactly what you're talking about. Is that excitement or is that him frustrated? That's him frustrated, so he's frustrated just so we're all clear. You can't see the tv, can you yeah? Oh okay, you got it okay great, so he goes for the audio is there Jerry so sorry. I was crazy. He 33:33 he just gyrates his body like a like you're seeing like a like when you say no to a four year old in the store and they stop their foot. Have you ever have you ever played the sims and then your sim couldn't get where he wanted to go? Yes, you're seeing Tim earnestly try to dance. It's kind of the same motion and then it kicked over like a lawn chair and he was like oh gosh, here's the thing yeah, so I know where the story goes yeah. 34:02 that feels super hoaxy yeah. I don't you because that to me is like what you would go like his frustration. There is like if you were like a do what a cartoon character does when they're frustrated. It does shocks. It does what it feels like. It does kind of seem like that. It does. I mean the listener man or the watcher all hail all hail might not know the rest of the story. Yeah, 34:26 but like that clip didn't feel earnest. Like when he's like, oh no, someone catch the balloon. So if you watch the rest of the video and they're talking over it, like analyzing it, so I'm not going to play anymore because I don't want them to spoil the story. What happens after that moment is the family, the dad and the mom are like angry and they're freaking out because they lost the balloon. they're like, we've been working on this balloon and now it's floating away. 34:49 Yeah, so they're angry. What's it filled with helium? helium. If you watch, if you look around the room, I don't know if you can see it in this photo. Okay. Yeah, you can't see any. actually you can't right by the right by the deck. There's a big helium tank. See that silver helium tank right in front of the deck by the stairs is that it's like in the bush. Okay, that's a helium tank. Oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah. And in the videos you can see the helium tanks as they move around. They have three helium tanks back there that they filled this balloon with. And so he's built this in his pay. I don't understand. Okay. 35:18 Yeah, so they're frustrated and then one of the other boys, gosh dang it, we lost it. One of the other boys, you hear him say falcons in there and he's the no one he know like none of the parents respond. Yeah, well then it says that's too busy going and then you the boy says it again. He's my favorite things about the quarterback documentary. We talked about that the quarterback documentary on Netflix. The first season they had Kirk cousins 35:46 and Patrick Mahomes, and then Marcus Mariota, rest in peace. He's fine, but his career is dead. it would cut between Mahomes. Mahomes would be like cussing and be like, rah rah rah, you know? And then it would cut to Kirk Cousins, who was just a homeschool dad. And he'd be like, no, would show the gameplay, right? It's game footage. So Mahomes is competitive. He's like throwing, he's like, you the ball drops and he's like, ah, cuss word after cuss word. And then it goes to Kirk, who's like, shoot. 36:15 Yeah, genuinely, that's what's guys. Come on. You watch the new season and then he goes up and he knows and I haven't yet. That's why I brought it up. I saw the news. There's a scene in the new season. Kirk's in it again. There's a scene in the new season where his brother, everyone's favorite. Yeah, there's a scene where him and his brother after a game are going to pick up some food and I'm not exaggerating when I say it is a spitting image. 36:39 of that acapella singing scene from ha ha ha ha ha. Yes, yeah, like they're just doing off him and his brother are doing acapella in the car and it's like here's the thing man Larry. Yes, super likable. It's so hard not to does it take place when he's like in Atlanta. Interesting. Yeah, it's good. It's a good season. Yeah anyways, 37:04 I'm sorry I just brought it up because of the shoot. So Falcon's in there. They're like Falcon's in there, Falcon's in there. Finally they like registers for the parents and the mom starts freaking like absolutely freaking out. She's like what? She's like no he doesn't and then the dad's like he's not in there, he's not in there. And so he's like looking for him. He's like Falcon, Falcon. And the other son is like I saw him crawl in there. He's in that balloon. And so the family, what happens after this, we hear after the fact they... 37:32 run through the house, searching the house for Falcon, trying to find him. They can't find him anywhere. They search the whole house, can't find him. So then they call nine one one. They're on the phone with nine one one and they get Falcons in the blue. They get put on hold. His the wife's on hold with nine one one and so the dad's like who can I call it? Dad calls FAA the FAA and he's like there's the balloons out there like you got to find it, shoot it down, probably tell the FAA you should probably shoot it down, scramble the fighter, the fighters, 38:01 they're on with nine one one and it kind of seems like I was not really taking this seriously. They're like oh yeah, your kids stuck in a balloon. Let me do it. I got stabbed was also around the time that up just came out, so it's just kind of like oh a little convenient yeah yeah and so they're getting put on hold and taking off hold. She's kind of freaking out on nine one one also nine one operators like you're going to send a squad car. I want me to do about that. I don't yeah. I guess FAA might be the appropriate people to call yeah and so then the dad 38:29 while she's waiting on the phone, the line with 911 and they're not really doing anything, honestly, quick thinking for the dad, he calls the news, not because he's like, want you guys to broadcast that. He's like, go get your news helicopter out there and like make sure we don't lose him. Because like he recognizes like this is a reflective material. It's a balloon. It's going to float away and like it's going to be impossible to find it unless we keep our eyes on it. And so he's like, get something up there to watch it. And so of course the news is like. 38:56 love this idea. Thank you for calling us. The news is like thanks for the content and so the news gets out there runs in there. How old is your son? What were his hobbies? Yeah. How tall is your son? Yeah, how tall is a five ten six year old Falcon five ten? Stuck in absolute specimen stuck in this. We got to get this guy because he's gonna play gonna play the NFL. They get about they're like oh 39:22 that doesn't see five. This gets shorter than five. I feel like we so which station starts following it all of them, all of them start following it yeah, but like they're in Fort Collins. What's yeah is I don't know what station got the bullet that got the helicopter up there, but I mean it quickly got picked up by national networks and so it was on national networks and then this became a thing where it was like pretty much across the nation. Everyone was a balloon everyone so everyone can see this is a screenshot from CNN. 39:53 And are you gonna finish describing that? Well, I mean, it's a picture of the balloon. I didn't know what else to say. And I'm reading the chiron down here. It says, boy floats away in balloon. Next up, coronavirus. It's 2009. were already ahead of the curve. the crazy the Dow was 10,000. That's what I was really excited by. They have the Dow counter down there and it says 10,000. Yeah, that sucks. 40:21 That truly does. It's just crazy how much life sucks man. So you ever think about it? Yeah, yeah, we spy so this balloon floats up in the air floated over seven thousand the helicopter, the helicopter is chasing this thing altitude seven thousand feet altitude. Yeah okay, but is that altitude altitude or is that seven thousand feet from the ground? You know, that's a good question. I don't know if it's what because in Colorado that'd be two thousand feet yeah off the ground yeah barely barely off the ground. Yeah, I think it was like 40:51 seven thousand feet from the ground is the way I understood it, but I could be wrong. I didn't know if they were like above sea level seven thousand you know, because that's more dramatic is what I'm saying. If you go probably seven thousand feet like altitude, I would think so. So this gets out at seven thousand feet distance. That's seven thousand subway feet altitude. 41:15 if you took some ways, boy float seven thousand subway sandwiches in the sky, boy float seven thousand spicy Italians. 41:28 this gets floating in this balloon and it makes national news. Yeah, it's a huge story. If you don't know how the story is, it sounds like we're being really insensitive to this kid being trapped in this balloon and seven thousand and then we're like a spicy at daddy. Like there's somebody listening to this who doesn't know how the story is and they're like 41:53 what what happened? Just quit joking around and tell stories. No, no, what a spicy one, be like oh no 42:11 so you got to watch it to get the reference. can't. I can't explain what I just to watch and I'm not going to tell you the time stamp. You're going to time stamp is the time stamp is probably one hour, fifteen minutes and thirty eight seconds. I don't know how long we've been recording, but that seems about right. 42:36 so this kids flat around the town. kids these kids over the kids, the kids stuck in this balloon seven thousand feet above the ground yeah, yes and he's flat floating. Hold on, we got to make some social media content real quick. You guys in for this? Okay, yeah, this right here we go. So this kid's stuck in this balloon seven thousand feet in the sky. Yes, that's a great hook. We don't talk. I'll do the video. We're not done with the video social media dude. 43:06 So this kid's trapped in a balloon? 43:12 He's doing the thumbnails right now. Don't worry. He didn't get unalived, so this is all national news. Everyone, the helicopters flying following him, the police are on the ground, like following where the location of it, like just tracking them. The how far is this balloon slash boy traveling from for Collins like where 43:40 so you don't say yeah yeah yeah I can I can tell you the National Guard gets scrambled. So here's a photo literally of this event, the National Guard chasing him that's why they didn't take. I like that you said that you're like of this event like like the other option was that you just pulled up a picture of the National Guard after 43:59 just to have a because like for audio listener, it's the National Guard in a helicopter. Yeah, it could be. This could be any photo and it's a it's absurd to me because this is, and I will say on the Wikipedia and it says Colorado Army National Guard Aviators search for six year old Falcon. He so this is what this is and I'm like why can't they have taken this picture and pan to the left so you could see the UF. Well, because they're probably far away from it. I don't know man. 44:27 I pro not they're pro not risking getting super close to it right just yet because they're just tracking you right now yeah they don't want to also a huge after that if you clear the air space and like it's not like that things just going to plummet and fall yeah it's just going to flow for a while and then eventually it won't kind of like that China balloon like this thing could have floated for weeks what or a week I don't think we would have floated for a week but I think there's like there's a strong possibility that's like okay can we figure out you know 44:52 It's less dangerous to just follow this thing and let it slowly drift down to a safer altitude than it is to try to pop it. Yeah, you know, yeah So he flew for 90 minutes He was airborne and this was all televised the whole time. I love that stuff by the way Yeah, and then eventually they put him in the bottom corner and they were like 45:21 Come on down to Applebee's for a two for 20 deal. Now back to a child in the sky. Child gets lost in sky. Sky eats child. 45:37 and so that's what chat gbt would give us for a title for the content. Yeah, so he flies for ninety minutes and goes on time. Let me see what's the distance. The distance was fifty miles and landed just twelve miles north of dia landed. Yes, so the so eventually it did start coming down eventually, so it's exactly what I just said. 46:03 it reached seven thousand feet and then it just slowly started moving downwards and so as you saw in that video, like you kind of see it's got a pitch to it. So like I don't know if there was a leak in it or what, but it just started losing altitude. There was a child and that's what the pitch is like. We don't know there's a leak in there. Yeah, there's like a kid weighing down the side, just kind of tumbling around in there and it came down in this field just outside DIA and like slowly but surely and 46:30 The live broadcast is kind of crazy to see it because you see this thing just slowly coming down in this field and the helicopter is like circling it. That's got the camera and then it's just all these cops driving down this field like towards where it's hitting and then they get close and like one of them just jumps out and just starts sprinting towards it and like catches it as it comes down and like brings it down and then the firefighters get there and the firefighters have what genuinely looks like. 46:58 No, they look like grim reaper scythes and they're like stabbing it trying to rip this thing. I like their pinata like like no one hit the kid, no one hit the kid and so everyone's watching with bated breath and what's so in about this. Why did you say that here? What's so insane about this moment everyone's watching with 47:20 baited breath. Here's what's so insane about this moment is a beta breath. You I'm he's got five foot eight breath, so they there a few minutes prior to this. A woman calls into the news and was like hey I because everybody who lived in the area was like I want to see if I can spot the kid and so they were all like outside like can you see the kid that the hey I shot at it. This is my favorite pastime. This is my hobby. That's we will date back to do people. You should just be like all 47:48 Something's happening. having a look at the sky and so they went out. They were looking at the sky and the lady said she saw it fly over her house and she called the news and she said while I was watching it, something fell from the balloon and everyone was like what fell and he she was like, I don't know what it was, but I will say whatever fell was about the size of a six year old boy and so now the news is running with the possibility that this kid fell from the balloon. 48:14 and so she tells them. I what it was, but I heard it screaming. Please help find my somebody catch me the police. They go to this latest neighborhood. They start canvassing the neighborhood looking for a kid that fell from a balloon and seven thousand feet. Meanwhile, the health well, I think the blue looking 48:35 Meanwhile, he fell from a story building seven hundred story building yeah. He's up there yeah. I'm sure he's in one piece just chilling in a tree somewhere. I am up here. Wow! If you don't know the story ends, we sound like real so real bad. We died sorry unalived so don't get mad at us algorithm. Okay, so I was sorry we're trying to cut some stuff for the social media here. 49:05 so as late calls an issue. I don't know what fell, but it looked like a six year old child. That's what they said and it sounded like a six year old child when it's screened for its mom, but it could have been a piece of shrapnel. It's shrapnel. There's no way of knowing so fell to the ground yeah, so there's two things. There's two scenes. There's the police looking for the kid 49:31 that's also on the news. The news trucks got out there so they're looking for the kid in that neighborhood. There's the helicopter chasing the thing there. All of this is less than two hours yeah yeah and it's televised national news. Everybody's watching it and so the firefighters are ripping this we wash red live by the way like our house is actually and so they the firefighters are ripping this thing to shreds yeah they get in there and there's a reporter on the ground who ran to the scene as well. The reporter on the ground 49:59 turns back to the camera and he says the balloon is empty and so now everyone's freaking out. They're like he fell from the balloon and so now it's becoming an even bigger like oh my gosh and so now the scene shifts to that neighborhood where everything fell down or where everything happened. You know what else was empty? 50:24 nine fire fighters rip open the balloon and the reporter goes. The balloon is empty and then an angel appeared over the balloon and said. Why do you look for him here? He clearly fell for neighborhoods. Why do you look for the living among the helium? 50:53 sorry I've been breathing helium for an hour to yeah. Is that why your voice is so high so meanwhile this whole time there was also that also if he was in the balloon yeah that probably could kill you that much he'll have much helium. We're I don't know how much helium you can breathe before you so that's what that lady heard where he fell is he falls and she hears 51:16 it's like yeah. His voice was super high yeah. How much helium can you breathe safely yeah? It's up there with your that's a google search up there with how much gasoline can you drink during when you googled that do you how much you googled how much can it's a nerd so you can breathe as much of it as you want. It's what a nerd okay yeah yeah. Why don't you explain to the audio listener what that means though? It means it's safe to drink 51:49 I like that it doesn't do. like here's our people. The wise video is we're going to start treating our audio listeners like they're dumb. Oh, you can't see what okay, so it's like it's like a balloon. Sorry, balloon, in plastic. I know you guys don't get it like our video on the problem is so so you you can breathe as much helium as you want. It's not going to do anything. Your body. The problem is 52:17 if you don't have oxygen, you obviously die. So the question is, is there oxygen in the boil? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways, so meanwhile, there's another scene is the scene at the the honey household because the Hennies are freaking out. These are still immediately after they called nine one one. The police sent a cruiser there with a couple of cops in it obviously and the cops search the house. They searched the house three times. This is standard protocol when a child was missing. 52:43 to search the house three times. Well, check the house. Make sure the kids not at the house. I don't know if it's three times. They check. They search the house. They search the house three times. 52:54 Hey, thanks for listening to things alone last night. Just so you know, we got a new merch line coming out for this summer, so you've been working on that summer bod and you want to show off how ripped you are. You can get a small t shirt from us or if you've not been working on that summer, but why don't you check out our two X selection? So we do have some really cool designs. I'm actually really proud of them. We got like a honking and bonking shirt. We've got regular things on last night. These are you listen. We don't make a ton of money from this show. This is literally to help cover our expenses, which you know 53:24 like microphones and Alex. so thanks for supporting our show. 53:32 think, sorry, we'll get to the reveal and then we'll. So they searched the house over three times. And they can't find them. They can't find them. The police are still there. They're kind of doing all the paperwork stuff with the family. They're like, all right, we got to fill this out for insurance. And so they're, you know, whatever, the police are there with the family. They're not doing paperwork. That was a bad joke. It was. The police are there with the family and there's news crews out front of their house. interrogating them. 54:01 I got this just nine. They were like the water board back then. 54:10 Tell me where your son is! 54:14 and they're googling how much water boarding can person and the person breathe. How much water can a person breathe? Oh people can't breathe water. Oh guys, the water is inert. 54:32 Good night. Okay, so. That's what happened. 54:37 water, one of this episode, I was like you know, and it's just kind of like was he in there, so oh my gosh, the balloon lands, they rip it out. It's empty. The police are looking for him over in trees and I can't say the police can't find the police can't find him in the house. The police can't find him right in that neighborhood where he allegedly fell. So now they're like backtracking all over the entire like area where he flew trying to see like did a kid fall out of the whole here. 55:06 They're in the house with the police and then the police say, hey, who's this kid? And they're like, what? Like, who's this other kid? Oh, that's our ghost. Like this kid just walked down the hall. And so then they look and Falcon was walking across the hall and he's like, who are all these people? What's going on? And they were like, oh my gosh, Falcon, you're here. Where were you? And he said I was in my new spot. 55:37 and they're like what and so he's like I found a new spot recently and they're like where is it and so he I guess because he was getting yelled at by his dad when the help when the balloon flew away for untying the tether he ran to a hiding spot because he felt like he was in trouble and he had a new spot that he would hide in in the garage addict and so he found a way he could climb up the shell where the garage that lived in the garage strung out. 56:05 Yeah, he said addict, right, like and he like a nun to do too. It was like, okay, in the garage addict, though he would climb up the shelves into the attic and he and he just hung out there whenever he would get in trouble. And so he thought he was in trouble. He hid in there for like a long time because he was scared and he heard all the commotion. He's like, they're so mad at me. I'm going to be in so much trouble. So he hit up there. Eventually he fell asleep and this whole thing's happening around him. 56:30 He fell asleep and he heard voices he didn't recognize and he's like, Oh, is something going on that I'm missing out on? And so he was afraid he was missing out on. was like, Oh my gosh, wait, are my parents having a picnic with my brother right now? He started experiencing FOMO for the first time and he climbed out of the attic and went out there to see what's going on. And that was the first time his parents ever knew he had this hiding spot. And so they didn't know he had that. And nobody who searched the house thought to look, Oh, maybe the kid climbed up in the garage attic because it 56:58 there was no ladder or anything out there. It's like how did the kid get in the attic? No one even like it didn't cross their mind. And so then they had to call the news and be like, hey, we found the kid. He was in the house the whole time. And the news is like the news like, you lied. Yeah. Well, they didn't think that they were like, oh, this was a big misunderstanding. And so the news flocks to the house. So the third property is just swarm. It is safe, kids safe in household time because they couldn't fit everything. Yeah. And so 57:27 the news of swarming their house and they're like hey, I think the best thing to do would be to go make a statement real quick because I'm going to say something. Yeah, you got to say something and so they step outside so he goes out there and he goes bear scratcher dot com is a website that I've made and all the proceeds are going to go to sealing that hole in our attic. Yeah, keep our kid out of there for ever. 57:57 So they come outside and they decide to take the whole family out with them. So they walk outside, they bring the whole family and they're all out there, very disheveled, looking like they just had a very stressful experience. Here's a photo of them. You want to care to describe it? Sure. So he looks like he's trying to cry and you know when someone's like trying to do it, but he's got the hair dude. Good for him. Like that's a good haircut on him. And then the youngest kid is the one at the bottom, right? Falcon's the one on there and his face looks like, whoops. 58:25 and then the two older brothers are like just bored to be there. They're just like, gosh, dude, Falcons, this is so much attention and the mom has that face. That's like, oops, please don't be mad at us. The bomb has that face of like the early two thousands infomercials when they just dropped all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And then it turns black and white and white. And then the infomercial is going to be like, did your kid accidentally cause a media storm by people thinking he was in a weather balloon? 58:54 get leather balloons safe with our unique insurance plan. Yeah. So what's the statement they made? What they say? So they come out and they're just like, Hey, we're sorry. This was obviously like a big misunderstanding and like just kind of very blanket stuff to just be like, we're glad our, our son's safe. This was a scary experience. Please respect our privacy. And as they're walking in, someone from CNN was like, Hey, can we interview you? And the plan was no, the plan was we're not doing interviews, but, 59:24 the Richard Hennie is Richard Hennie steps aside and talk to the guy and he's like okay, we'll do it and so then they go back in the house and they're like we're going to do a national CNN interview. They come in the camera crews come in their house is this they're going to do yeah that night and so CNN's like this is now prime time CNN is interviewing the family of the balloon boy Anderson Cooper. I don't know who actually interviewed him. I don't think so because because I've seen the video and I'm going to show you the video okay and it doesn't sound like Anderson Cooper. Okay, but 59:54 you're so annoying, but this is the family there at the interview mom. Yeah, this is in their house in their house. They set it up and then they like broadcasting now all the kids look tired. They're very tired. It's been a long day. It's been a very long day and so this is the clip from the interview itself. We'll watch father of balloon boy. They're already done the balloon boy, which is very nice. We believe one hundred percent that he was on board and falcon was really in the garage this whole time. 01:00:23 I don't know if Falcon can hear me, was he... because I know at some point he fell asleep in that garage, but he was hiding out because he thought you were going to punish him for something that happened earlier in the day. Did he hear anything? Did he hear you screaming out Falcon Falcon? 01:00:40 uh... he's asking falcon did you hear us calling your name at any time you did why didn't you come out 01:00:52 you guys said that we did this for the show. What he said you guys said that we did this for a show yeah and watch watch how the dad reacts. Watch his reaction here. Listen closely. I'm gonna rewind to just a second. We did this for a show. No 01:01:21 You didn't come out? No. I heard what he said, but I'm sure not, I'm not, it wasn't really clear. What was his, his reasoning? Why he heard, he heard you screaming Falcon Falcon, and I'm sure he heard his mom screaming Falcon Falcon, but why didn't he come out of the garage at that point? Well, you know, whenever he, whenever we tell him. Oh stop. Yeah. This guy's lying. Oh yeah. 100%. 01:01:51 That was a moment of lying. So the kid says, we did it for the show and then the dad is stumped. I was like, yeah. Yeah. So now this blows up into the balloon boy hoax and it becomes an even bigger deal and it's all over the news for a week and it starts to turn into now the police are putting together a case of like, oh, this was fake. 01:02:21 this cost two million dollars this chase and so we're going to process now the police are like shucks you shoot bad, bad, hanny, bad, that's what they're. That's how they react yeah yeah yeah and then one of the deputies was like falcons in there, so so they start digging into this story and they find you find out about 01:02:48 his background, making all his products sure and then it comes out a couple years ago. They were on a wife swap and not only were they on wife swap, but they got called back to be on the special hundred hundredth episode of wife swap because their episode was so great. Okay and look at the family they switched with by the way. I don't I know a lot of the focus is on 01:03:17 the Hennies, but like the family they switched with, huh? Yeah, it's hard to believe that the audio listener. I truly, I don't know if I can, you know, I don't know that I have 01:03:32 Okay, so they were on wife swap yeah and so a lot of stuff from their past starts to come out and you start to find out that they are reality. They were that they went to acting school that they wanted to make it in Hollywood. They never made it in Hollywood. They did the reality TV thing. He's making the products his wife. I don't know what this is, but this comes out. I don't know how to explain this audio listener. She is in the back of a pizza hut and 01:04:02 there's a tornado on the wall. There is a picture of a tornado. Okay, wait, actually I was joking about the pizza head thing. She's playing guitar in fake leather pants and there is a picture of a tornado, but it's like a broad day. It's a for it's a framed picture of a tornado on the wall. It's not a good frame. It's a cheap frame. That's so interest. Is that an album cover or something? 01:04:28 I don't know why is that they like play that out and it's like oh, I don't have to be absurd about this. This is like weird. Oh okay, so they do this. They do like they want to be famous. They really want to be famous is what it starts to look like. They go to court right yeah and in court so the so the police are suing them because the National Guard cost the money yeah because it costs a lot of money for them to do this and so they go to court. This is him. This is him in court. 01:04:57 They're in court. He's looking up like the way that you would like. You're like, please God, please help. Yeah. Please help us do this. Or if you're just very annoyed by testimony, if you're looking at the sky and you're like, man, if this still could give me a WME, that'd be cool. Man. Honestly, like I wish he was in the balloon. God, he was in the balloon, please let CAA know I'll still sign with them. Here's the, here's the craziest. His son did the same thing. 01:05:27 Okay, so they're in court. How long after? So what's the date of the balloon incident? Yeah, that's a good question. The date was October fifteenth, two thousand nine K. That's right and then wait, what did I say October fifteenth, two thousand nine? Yeah, that's right. Yes, and then almost day. Was it yep October fifteen two thousand nine day. I was a Saturday 01:05:56 Thursday. Sorry, got messed up. Sorry, the T's can get confusing. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah, they can. 01:06:06 he's okay. Every other day starts the get well and then this on the weekend. So October sixteenth, they began an investigation also immediately like yeah, because they like when they're in court, that's what I'm saying. How long so October sixteenth investigation began and they ended up going to court. 01:06:32 November 12th. Wow, so very quickly, very fast, like a month later, they've like we were because like here's the thing about the government. The government doesn't bring cases because like the reason the government is slow on lawsuits is because it's so expensive for the government to lose a case that they want to if they bring a case against you, if the government sues you, you lost like just you know, they're not doing it to be like, let's see how it plays out. Yeah, 01:07:02 like if there's a if there's like a if they're like we might lose this, they honestly just be like whatever yeah, let them run for Congress or whatever. Who cares, but if they know they're going to win, then I'll get you yeah, so they November twelfth they're in court and up until November twelfth they had maintained their innocence the whole time. They had been on the news a lot and they always said we had no idea he was up there and the story stayed very 01:07:31 consistent. Yeah, they never varied from what happened in the story and all their interviews. November 12 comes around and everyone was shocked because they pled guilty and you can't lie in court. You can lie on tv all day. Everyone was like we didn't see this coming and what ended up coming out afterwards is they learned that what they were facing was a class four felony which could range, which could land them six years in prison and up to five hundred thousand dollars in fines and if they pled guilty, 01:08:00 then what prison well if they pled guilty they would get a much lighter sentence and so later that year on December twenty third they did receive sentencing after their guilty plea and Richard faced ninety days in jail and a hundred hours of community service and my umi she got a misdemeanor and so she got twenty days in jail and then two weeks of supervised community service and that was their charge and a thirty six thousand dollar fine a thirty six thousand dollar fine yeah kind of. 01:08:28 I mean, thirty six was a pretty expensive car back then, but still you could get on a payment plan for that and I guess be all right. I mean, it's definitely not something you want to deal with. Right, right, right, right. But I'm like, she only got two weeks and then he spent three months away. Yeah, he served all ninety days. I'm actually not sure if he did. He also was ordered to serve a formal apology to the all the agencies that search it. 01:08:57 You also have to say you're sorry you're going to go to jail for ninety days. Hello, hundred guard. I am sorry. Hi national guard. I'm sorry. Hello, who for a brief moment you thought you watched a child fall from the sky. I'm sorry that you went through that yeah. Oh part of the sentencing to this is a weird sentence. Part of sentence was they were banned from profiting from the event. 01:09:24 Oh, that makes sense though. They can't sell your life story later. You can't turn this into a I suppose you can't like a boy documentary comes out. You don't get paid. You can't you know that makes sense to me actually because this is a definitely a story that's like yeah, we could actually see a way to capitalize on this. Well, here's what's interesting. Can't write a book. Here's what's interesting. You know, that's where that other family got it right though. That kid that fell through the ice. Yeah, 01:09:53 it took me a second to get by what you doing right the book, the capital movie yeah, that's because there wasn't a crime. That's the thing. If you're going to have something crazy happen, make sure it's not a crime yeah yeah or make sure you're not the one being crimed or doing crime crime, be crime, don't do crime. You know anyways, so here's what's interesting about the crime. Why would I do crime when I do crime? It's like the B movie 01:10:22 B 01:10:52 the public actually like they've been big supporters of my campaign and they like me so they're forgiven. Is that what happened? Well, so he said, I think they face nothing matters. He says, I think they faced enough public backlash for this. I think that was punishment enough or removing the misdemeanor. We're moving the felony from them and we're canceling whatever he can vote again. Now it is not a felon and Richard, why you tell him who you're gonna vote for? 01:11:22 Well, it came out that one of the reasons why they came and they pled guilty is because they were being threatened that his wife would be deported if they didn't shoot. So now I'm the jerk so now, so now they it's coming to light that they were kind of so the government won't bring a case against you unless they know they can win and they know they can win because they have dirt and leverage over yeah because they twist your arm. 01:11:50 because they waterboard and they're like how much waterboarding till die and they're like okay, we can do a little. Oh no, I was back when you could actually tweet so now you can't because I don't use Twitter and so here's what's really interesting about this the whole time. 01:12:09 first 01:12:38 I mean I guess, but you know the other side of that and this is why I don't think sheriff should be politicians or any an elected official like that. It was the sheriff is facing backlash of I got to do something about this hoax yeah. So what's really interesting is there was I can't. I'm sorry you're an hour and twelve minutes into this episode right now, so and we just got an interesting. Here's what else is really interesting about this is this sheriff yeah was running for mayor and the sheriff. 01:13:08 saw an operative potentially allegedly may have saw this as an opportunity to show I'm tough on crime yeah and I'm not going to let this go and I am going to win this case right and so this became a politicized thing for this specific sheriff allegedly whether that's and if they're if they're guilty we're going to put them all in actual balloons and make sure they actually float away. Shoot Shucks the sheriff's the sheriff's in the balloon. 01:13:40 Oh no, no, no, no, not the sheriff's in the blue and they're going to tie the family. Oh, I thought we were blue and they're going let him flow away. That's the punishment that the sheriff came up with. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That was him being tough on being a more tough on crime because whatever crime you commit, we crime it back to you. We know reverse whatever crime you do. We do unto you as you've done to others. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So I learned this in Vegas. Actually, if someone does something you don't like, you just we've done too many bad jokes. Okay, so here's what happened. 01:14:09 and so in twenty twenty they gave I listen. I don't know we're in a weird spot today. I tried to say the kid was seven thousand so spicy Italians in the sky dude. This isn't this isn't one of our bangers. I disagree. I think this is a big bang. I've been trying. We're going to send it off for the bang though is so here's what's crazy right. They get pardoned in twenty twenty yeah right and and that kid is how old is he in twenty twenty high school 01:14:37 in twenty twenty. I don't know how old he would be in twenty twenty. He was seven six in two thousand nine. Yeah. Yeah. And so in twenty twenty they get the pardon. Yeah. Remember part of the terms of their whole suit was they can't profit from it. And earlier this year Netflix released a documentary got the balloon boy documentary. So they did say they are in it. Yeah. So the whole family's in it. They tell the story and sell got it. Is it true. 01:15:07 did it actually happen? Did they hope it actually happen? We don't know what this oh did what you're saying. Was it a hoax? I'm pretty sure the kid in the doc. I don't know the last time we made definitive statements was in the tent Natalia Barnett episode and then we watched the Natalia Barnett documentary and we owe that girl on apology. We do owe that girl an apology, but yeah the kids in the documentary and so this is him in the documentary now and he says 01:15:34 with his email on the screen in the back guys. He says hold on on the screen, so you know I'm honest. Okay, wait, wait, read some of the emails though. Wait, because this person says sufficiently outraged holy crap. I didn't think you'd respond internet historian. Hi Victor, thank you for your support. 01:16:01 balloon incident hijack. Thank you for your support. That's clearly a canned response. Oh here's oh here's two subject lines. I believe you, some of the line. I believe a dude. What the heck so he's doing this netflix interviews gmail was just open in the background. That is crazy. I believe I believe 01:16:28 and he does the the subject line is the incident. That's crazy. The whole netflix document, the whole fam maintains that this was a big misunderstanding. They didn't know what's going on. He maintains. I thought I was in trouble. I hit in the attic. I stayed in there the whole time and then I came out and realized that this had turned into a big yeah understanding and I'm also available for casting 01:16:54 and yeah yeah he gets on camera. He sits down for I am sag. He sits down for the interview and he just goes falcon henni five ten so you look five eight I'm five five ten 01:17:12 So all of that to say is twenty two now. This was a reference aluminum because it's an aluminum balloon got it. That was okay. I am the balloon got it. I am rectangular. I am rectangular. Got to pay that guy royalties now. Now he got a felony so he can't make money off stuff. 01:17:35 That's crazy, man. Yeah. So honestly, I don't know. I've watched a lot of videos. I've watched the documentaries. I've read the article. You still don't have a, you don't have a feeling for here's the thing. Here's what I'm saying. Kids, kids are not good liars. And I do believe that first that they, but here's the thing. Here's the thing as well for the show stuff sometimes for the show. Yeah. But kids sometimes just say stuff you told me not to for the show. Well, I kids say that show. I don't know. Kids say stuff all the time. 01:18:04 said one time one time when I was in a last time when I was in first grade, so same game same age. Hold on. This is all talk first grade, same age, first grade, same age. I was in your hand in my face like that for the audio. Listen, he stuck his hand up in my face. It wasn't quite a good face. Oh sorry, the audio half the hand thing at the end of your arm. I was in first grade. Well, maybe not yours. I don't know in line at school and some kid in line at school turns to me and says I'm going to cut your head off with an axe 01:18:35 kids just say stuff. Sometimes no one told them that you should tell the heck you're going to cut his head off for that. I mean okay, I could also see like him saying like the balloon was for the show like we were making the balloon for our next episode of wife swap so they can see what we're up to these days. Yeah, I could see him being like oh you told you told me not to untie it. You told me I thought I was in trouble because you told me not to yeah because it's for the show. 01:19:00 Yeah, I could see that to maybe maybe, but that's being very generous and then why would the dad go? Yeah, the way he so I will say the way he says he reacted the way the freaking CEO and HR lady did where they're like, yeah, if you panic, I go, oh, I'm going to think bad things. I will say the video does seem the video of it flying away does seem like he's faking it, but I will also say that there is a shift when 01:19:27 they finally hear the sun saying Falcons in there. There's a shift in the way they're acting. So I think it's possible that the bit was the balloon flew away. We're mad at Falcon. Cause the balloon flew away. Oh, wait a minute. But then that could make sense. Falcons in the balloon. That can make sense that you told me. 01:19:47 It was for the show. Yeah. I was then tie it. He saw him get mad and thought he was actually mad and he so he hid. So when he said, why didn't you hear his calling? He goes, because you told me it was for the show. Yeah. But you seemed actually mad. Yeah. And that what his kid that could make sense. That plan wasn't you're going to be in the balloon. The plan was the balloons going to fly away. That's interesting. Okay. Okay. I mean, I don't know. It's hard to say for sure. 01:20:15 They got a pardon. Legally, they didn't do it anymore. It's not a hoax. Legally, the kid was in the balloon. So that's the story of Balloon Boy. It's up in the air. Watch the documentary so they can get paid. 01:20:30 I was supposed to be little he didn't even mean to do it. No, it wasn't intentional. I was supposed to be under the FAA radar. It would have been great if it was intentional, but it wasn't. It was so intentional. So yeah, the balloon boy might have did it. Who knows? Wow. Watch the documentary so they could get paid. I saw a balloon flying over our house a couple weeks ago and this is true because we live in LA and stuff happens and and something fell out of it that I was like what the heck? I think it was the devil. 01:21:00 Plan a fiddle. 01:21:07 Hey, thanks for watching this. I put it on back here. Thanks for watching this episode of things alone last night. If you liked it, you want more of it, give us a comment, give us a review, give share it with somebody that helps. It's always it's free to do that. You know, it's free to share. What's not free is joining us on danger. We budget the same thing. What's not free is joining us on patreon. That costs money. 01:21:30 But that money does help us do this show more bad money goes to buy us a jet. We've got a long way to go. No, it really does help us to keep the show going. So and you get next week's episode for free and you to be in the discord with us and it's really fun and then we have we have monthly hangouts and so thanks for thanks for all of our patreon supporters for making the show happen. 01:21:54 If you want more episodes, you've probably already dipped, but if you we should start over to keep going. Hey, if you like that episode of things on the last night, there's another one you could watch or listen to called lawn chair. You just put her all in. No one cares. Cut any of it. All right. Uncut is all thing. 01:22:16 there's another episode called launch here. Larry, guy had balloons on his chair and then he shot him and there was an airport at that one too. He got in trouble for that right trouble. Yeah, he got in trouble, but in twenty twenty the governor of colorado parted him and he made a documentary about it. All right, 01:22:36 cash to see you next week. The inside of my head. This is never a podcast network podcast. You want to find out more about their shows. You can go to evergreenpodcast.com