The Dad Called the News Himself
DENVER - 9NEWS has been asked by many how we decided to cover the story of 6-year-old Falcon Heene and the claim that he was carried off from his Fort Collins home in a helium balloon.
Instead of being in the balloon, Falcon was safe on the ground the entire time and now the Larimer County Sheriff's Office believes it was a hoax and a publicity stunt perpetuated by the Heene family.
An attorney for the Heene family maintains it was not a hoax.
On Thursday around 11 a.m., Richard Heene called our assignment desk and spoke with a news desk editor. Heene told us that his 6-year-old son was in a balloon that had accidentally taken off and asked 9NEWS to launch SKY9 to try and find it.
Our desk editor says he could hear Heene's wife, Mayumi Heene, in the background talking to someone else on the phone. He believed it was a 911 dispatcher.
We took down Heene's number, and after hanging up we let Vice President/News Director Patti Dennis know about the story.
At that time, other producers in the 9NEWS Information Center started making phone calls to the FAA and other agencies to find out what they knew about the balloon. We also called Fort Collins Police, which were unaware of any incident, and attempted to contact the public information officer for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office.
Dennis called Richard Heene back and spoke with him on the phone.
"I told him I didn't believe the story," Dennis said.
She asked him for his son's name, school and other confirming information about their family.
"He was crying, said his son's name was Falcon," Dennis said. "Then I asked him, 'Why haven't you called police?' And he said, 'I have. The deputy is here.'"
By that time, sheriff's deputies had arrived at the house.
"I said, 'Put him [the officer] on the phone,'" Dennis said.
A deputy spoke with Dennis directly and she confirmed it was a deputy before asking about the balloon.
The deputy confirmed they were now investigating it as a missing child case.
"When law enforcement tells us they have a missing child, who is likely in danger, we have an obligation to report that to the public," Dennis said. "That's what we have Amber Alerts, for that very reason."
No Amber Alert was issued in Falcon's case because he did not fulfill the specific requirements.
"If he had been in a car, a boat, a motorcycle or any other mode of transportation, we would have covered it," she said.
(Copyright KUSA*TV, All Rights Reserved)
