Almost from the moment the balloon touched down in the Colorado countryside where a young six year old boy was thought to be inside but was not - speculators in the media have been looking to call the entire fiasco a hoax.
The spin doctors are out in full force and media bias is everywhere. But on Saturday Gawker broke a story that a recent collaborator of Richard Heene (father of balloon boy) named Robert Thomas claims the entire incident was a hoax.
In the article Thomas paints a picture of Heene being an egocentric celebrity hound that after appearing on ABC's wife swap, he would do anything to get back on TV again. Specifically in his own show similar to myth busters where Heene could showcase his own scientific talents from his background in storm chasing.
Thomas even produced image files of some of the e-mail exchanges between himself and Heene. In those exchanges Thomas included only e-mail that give the impression he took science more serious than Heene while Heene's were aloof and off topic. In fact Thomas included e-mail that showed Heene's wife Mayumi responding to ask if Robert would watch their children for $10 per hour.
Ultimately if you read between the lines and it doesn't take much, you can see Mr. Robert Thomas has an ax to grind because he felt Heene took on an unwarranted superior role in their working relationship.
Now.. how does Thomas come to the conclusion that Heene's efforts were a hoax? Because of a conversation between the two regarding hoax's of UFO's specifically the Roswell incident. Now this is Thomas's quote NOT Heene's but this quote of Thomas's is what he claims Heene said to him:
"Can we attract UFO's with a homemade flying saucer? We will modify a weather balloon, so that it resembles a UFO and will electrically charge the skin of the craft (Biefield-Brown Effect). We will capture the footage on film, and will utilize the media as a means with which to make our presence known to the masses. This will not only provide us with incredible footage, but will also generate a tremendous amount of controversy among the public, as well as publicity within the mainstream media. This will be the most significant UFO-related news event to take place since the Roswell Crash of 1947, and the result will be a dramatic increase in local and national awareness about The Heene Family, our Reality Series, as well as the UFO Phenomenon in general.
According to Thomas he suspected Heene all along that this event was a hoax. The police have been quick to assert this was no hoax. The intense media pressure may crack Heene and the truth comes out. But what gives Thomas the credibility he needs in this claim is perhaps Falcon Heene's own words in a live CNN interview. Falcon's father Richard asked him, "why didn't you come out?" And Falcon said, "you guys said we did this for the show." No doubt every person in America thought hoax at that point.
VIDEO: Falcon's slip up: "You guys said we did this for the show"
Now... Did Richard Heene' use his children in an elaborate hoax? It remains to be found out. He certainly may well have. But one thing is certain. Robert Thomas has an ax to grind with Heene and he'd love to be the man to bring him down. Thomas didn't come forward reluctantly. He lunged forward with the same gusto he claims Heene used in orchestrating this event. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
