Guy Claims He Helped Plan Balloon Boy Hoax

TMZ ^ | 10/17/2009

[GoldStandard]

A man who claims he once worked for Richard Heene says Heene was obsessed with becoming famous, wanted to get his own show, and had an idea for a massive media stunt that involved a "weather balloon" that "resembles a UFO." Sound familiar?

Robert Thomas claims, in an interview with Gawker, that Heene believed such a stunt would "be the most significant UFO-related news event to take place since the Roswell Crash of 1947."

Thomas said Heene was "driven by ego and fame" after appearing on "Wife Swap." He says Heene's idea for a show was something like "'MythBusters'-meets-mad scientist."

Thomas says he worked for Heene from March through May 2009.

[TigersEye]

The bill will be in the 100s of k’s. That is a lot of money for an out of work construction worker.

[pandoraou812]

Guess he should have given this some thought IF it was a stunt. How does he manage to build weather balloons & track storms if he is out of work? Odd bunch IMHO.

[Oztrich Boy]

That bottom portion was pretty small, even for a 6 year old, theoretically if he was in there, we would have seen some sag or ANY type of movement from that tiny confined space

From the image I estimate 4' diameter, maybe slightly less than 2' high. Plenty of room for a 6 year old.

If the base floor was 10mm plywood it wouldn't sag (although I would expect some indication of load where it attaches to the balloon - that wasn't there)_