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It's Been 10 Years Since The 'Balloon Boy' Saga In Colorado

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) - Ten years ago one of the strangest events in Colorado history occurred. On Oct. 15, 2009, Richard Heene led police and media on a chase across Colorado's skies and wound up halting flights at Denver International Airport in the process.

balloon-boy
The weather balloon in the the Colorado "balloon boy" saga flies across the sky. (credit: CBS)

Heene, formerly of Fort Collins, said he feared his 6-year-old son Falcon had crawled into his homemade, UFO-shaped hot-air balloon before it accidentally sailed away.

Heene
Richard Heene and Falcon in 2009 (credit: CBS)

What followed was a media circus. People across the country tuned in to watch live news helicopter video of the balloon floating across northern Colorado and even close to DIA (which led to the airspace closure). It finally came to the ground in a field.

It turned out Falcon was not inside the weather balloon and law enforcement later suggested the ordeal was a hoax.

For many years afterwards, the Heenes denied their part in any hoax. Richard pleaded guilty in November 2009 to a charge of attempting to influence a public servant. A month later, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Richard Heene
Richard Heene wound up with a 90-day jail sentence in Larimer County after pleading guilty to a false reporting charge after the "balloon boy" saga in October 2009. Although he still tried to deny it after his guilty plea, officials say Heene knowingly lied to authorities, telling them he and his wife thought one of their three sons was up in a UFO-shaped helium weather balloon that took flight and traveled from their Fort Collins-area home to a field near Denver International Airport. The scare prompted a major media circus to the first degree. The Heene family moved from Colorado to Florida in September 2010.

His wife Mayumi received 20 days in jail. The family was ordered to pay $36,000 in fines.

Richard Heene's Balloon
Richard Heene's balloon lands after its long flight across the skies of north-central Colorado. (credit: CBS)

A year later, the Heenes moved away from Colorado.

A high school playwright wrote a musical that was based on the "Balloon Boy" saga, as it came to be known, and it was staged in Colorado five years ago.

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