Mayumi Heene “Balloon Boy” Mom Admits It Was A Hoax (VIDEO)

Posted on October 24, 2009

The mother of “balloon boy”, Falcon Heene, has finally admitted to investigators that the scary incident with the balloon and their missing son was a hoax. Read more of what Mayumi Heene had to say below.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said last week that eccentric amateur scientist Richard Heene and his wife Mayumi fabricated the October 15 “balloon boy” incident when their six-year-old son Falcon was reported to have flown away in the flying saucer-like balloon.

Richard Heene and Mayumi are expected to face felony and misdemeanor charges. But their three sons are not likely to be charged because of their age.

Mayumi Heene told police two days after the incident that she and her husband “had lied to authorities,”according to the search warrant affadavit.

“The motive for the fabricated story was to make the Heene family more marketable for future media interest,” the affidavit stated.

Mayumi was the one who called police to report that her son was inside the silver balloon that launched from their backyard. But before Mayumi called 911, her husband Richard had already phoned a local TV station and federal aviation officials.

The Heenes, who were in the series “Wife Swap” earlier this year, planned the balloon hoax about two weeks before it took place and instructed their three sons to “lie to authorities as well as the media regarding this hoax,” the affidavit added.

Richard Heene’s stunt was to land him a reality show, but now might land him in jail.

People around the country were worried to death about the little boy that supposedly had flown away in the balloon, and became outraged when they found out the family had done it “for the show.”

During the October 17 search of the Heene’s house, authorities confiscated video cameras, cassette tapes, computers, hard drives, a photograph of a flying saucer, receipts, papers and a flight itinerary, a return of search warrant showed.