Affidavit: Mom told deputies balloon saga was hoax

AP via Google ^ | October 23rd 2009 | DAN ELLIOTT (AP) Oct 24th

[lilycicero]

They should have said Toonces the cat was on the balloon, then I would never have doubted their story.

[Gondring]

Law enforcement figured it out the same time the public did. The sheriff later admitted they had misled the media about that to make it easier to investigate the family. Seems Papa Heene was very helpful while he thought police still believed him. During the period while the Sheriff was still indicating he didn’t think it was a hoax, they lured Papa down to the station and then went into the house to execute a search warrant and try to persuade Mama to go to a safe house with the kids.

Exactly. One of the best weapons law enforcement has is to keep people thinking they're not too quick.

[Gondring]

babygene, you should probably set a password on your screensaver...it seems that a child posted in your absence.

[Gondring]

If they had put that kid in there, there is no way that balloon could have gone up into the air.

Based on the numbers they had for the weight of the craft, it would have. It was 18 pounds heavier than they'd been told, so it wouldn't...but it was close.

[Gondring]

So he is either stupid or clever, lol.

The answer isn't "stupid." I wouldn't call it "clever," though, as it's a pretty standard police trick. Just because many perps (and FReepers :-) aren't quick enough to realize the police can mislead, too, doesn't mean it's anything special.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Please stop by the FReepathon thread and give it a bump. If you haven’t donated yet, please give it some thought.

Thank you!

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

This makes me sad for their children. I hope the kids have non-crazy grandparents or similar to go stay with. The foster system is not a good place for kids to be (in general — I am aware that there are some excellent foster parents out there, being personally acquainted with one of them — but there is also an awful lot of abuse and neglect in the foster system).

[Brown Deer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sshPiEUGyZ8

[Loud Mime]

Interesting. If he says he can't trust the cops he knows, you immediately claim he has issues.

[3catsanadog]

My maternal grandfather was a cop; my paternal grandfather was a fireman. Needless to say, I support the police and firemen.

[Onerom99]

They may have tried. The Colorado State math professor said it wouldn’t have taken off with the kid inside.

[Kozak]

I hope they get a nice fat bill for all the emergency services they caused to be used.

[wombtotomb]

As well as a bill for the crops destroyed when those vehicles had to drive through ready to harvest fields to rescue the balloon.

Many peoples livelyhoods were negatively affected by this hoax.....

[deannadurbin]

I’m for their punishment but we have enough broken families in this country. Let them pay their fines, get their counseling, but I don’t think the children should be taken from them. This was their first offense and there shouldn’t be any others, with all the notoriety shone on this case.

[lastchance]

It appears as if Mr. and Mrs. have separate attornies. I smell divorce.

[onedoug]

Wow! Talk about issues....