Bruce Breedlove
10-16-2009, 12:58 PM
As a resident of Colorado I would like to apologize to the entire country for what appears to be a hoax or a publicity stunt. Around noon (Mountain Time) yesterday I heard a Denver radio call-in show host talking about a 6-year-old boy flying in a homemade helium balloon. I went home and watched the events unfold. I had no sense of scale of the balloon (and therefore no idea of its potential lift) but it appeared to me that it was not carrying any load. When the balloon finally landed I could see that it was a small craft that most likely did not have enough lift to carry a child thousands of feet into the Colorado sky. I'm sure the father (who built the balloon) knew this all along. Why did he not notify authorities of this fact? Hmmm. (The radio host left his show early and went looking for the kid (who at the time was thought to have fallen out of the balloon) in his personal helicopter.)
Luckily the kid is safe. He was hiding in the garage attic all along. Cops "thoroughly searched" the house and reported he was not in the house. How could they miss him? Hmmm. And it is reported now that the father said the garage attic is the kid's "favorite hiding spot". Why would he not look there or at least tell the cops to look there? Hmmm.
This family craves attention. They are storm chasers. The father took the entire family to be in the middle of Hurricane Gustav. I worked that hurricane for FEMA and I saw the destruction it caused. I would NEVER put my kids' lives at risk for a cheap thrill like that. The family has also appeared on a reality TV show - twice. Maybe they loved the attention that brought and they cooked up the "boy in the balloon" stunt to get some more attention. Who knows? The whole thing is fishy.
Again, my apologies for this embarassing event. This kooky family is not representative of Colorado families.
Luckily the kid is safe. He was hiding in the garage attic all along. Cops "thoroughly searched" the house and reported he was not in the house. How could they miss him? Hmmm. And it is reported now that the father said the garage attic is the kid's "favorite hiding spot". Why would he not look there or at least tell the cops to look there? Hmmm.
This family craves attention. They are storm chasers. The father took the entire family to be in the middle of Hurricane Gustav. I worked that hurricane for FEMA and I saw the destruction it caused. I would NEVER put my kids' lives at risk for a cheap thrill like that. The family has also appeared on a reality TV show - twice. Maybe they loved the attention that brought and they cooked up the "boy in the balloon" stunt to get some more attention. Who knows? The whole thing is fishy.
Again, my apologies for this embarassing event. This kooky family is not representative of Colorado families.