Free Republic

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The runaway UFO-like balloon that the world thought was carrying a 6-year-old boy is back in the hands of the parents who pleaded guilty to the hoax.

The parents of the "Balloon Boy" are about to land - perhaps behind bars. Richard Heene and his wife, Mayumi, reached a deal with authorities to enter guilty pleas over their October hoax that transfixed the country, their lawyer said Thursday. Heene, 48, will plead guilty to a felony - attempting to influence a public servant - while his 45-year-old wife will plead to a misdemeanor charge, attorney David Lane said. Although Lane initially said the deal would spare the couple from jail time, the lawyer later said he expected prosecutors to request some time behind bars - 90 days...

DENVER (Reuters) – The mother of a Colorado boy thought to be aboard a homemade helium balloon has admitted to investigators the whole thing was a hoax, according to a court document made public on Friday. ... "The motive for the fabricated story was to make the Heene family more marketable for future media interest," the affidavit states. The document also says the Heenes, who had starred in the reality television show "Wife Swap," had devised the hoax about two weeks before and had instructed their three children to lie to authorities and the media.

DENVER — The mother of the 6-year-old boy once feared missing inside a runaway helium balloon admitted the whole saga was a hoax, according to court documents released Friday. Mayumi Heene told sheriff's deputies that she and her husband Richard "knew all along that Falcon was hiding in the residence" in Fort Collins, according to an affidavit used to get a search warrant for the home.