[GovernmentShrinker]

I think there may be some criminal child abuse charges here, when all the investigating is done. Something is WAY wrong in this family. They’ve apparently dragged their kids into hurricanes as part of their “storm-chasing” obsession, and it now appears that the 6 year old was bullied into participating in a scam that tied up huge amounts of emergency personnel for hours. They were dragging that poor kid around to media interviews, where he threw up twice — both times when the question of why he didn’t come out of hiding was posed. Either the kid was genuinely ill with a stomach flu or something, in which case one vomiting episode should have been the cue to stop dragging him around to media interviews, or the vomiting was due to psychological stress in a kid who’s afraid of getting in trouble for not sticking to lies his father told him to tell. These kids are not living in a situation which is safe for their physical or psychological well-being.

[LibWhacker]

criminal child abuse charges

That's what I've been thinking, too. I could see the greaseball father slipping the poor kid a little Ipecac before the interviews to generate sympathy for the family. 'Course, it could be stress, as you say, but I wouldn't put anything past the old man; he doesn't seem to have much regard for the welfare of his kids.

[mlizzy]

I think there may be some criminal child abuse charges here, when all the investigating is done. Something is WAY wrong in this family. They’ve apparently dragged their kids into hurricanes as part of their “storm-chasing” obsession, and it now appears that the 6 year old was bullied into participating in a scam that tied up huge amounts of emergency personnel for hours. They were dragging that poor kid around to media interviews, where he threw up twice — both times when the question of why he didn’t come out of hiding was posed. Either the kid was genuinely ill with a stomach flu or something, in which case one vomiting episode should have been the cue to stop dragging him around to media interviews, or the vomiting was due to psychological stress in a kid who’s afraid of getting in trouble for not sticking to lies his father told him to tell. These kids are not living in a situation which is safe for their physical or psychological well-being.

I agree with you completely. It was beyond cruel to "use" his child in a hoax like this. Sicko!

[FourPeas]

Something is WAY wrong in this family.

Yup.

[HiTech RedNeck]

At the least, the kid sounds like a good candidate for custody (though that shouldn’t be said lightly because often the custody arrangements are almost as scummy as what the child was removed from).

In the picture earlier above, I can almost see the upset kid thinking “here we go again, when will it stop, Daddy?”

[Gondring]

Have you seen their lovely music video?