'Balloon Boy' hoax brings jail time for parents

He said Richard Heene was working throughout the year to pitch a reality series about madcap experiments and inventions. By late September, it became clear that the networks weren't biting.

At the same time, the Heenes' finances were collapsing -- they weren't paying bills, checks were bouncing, and banks were threatening to close accounts, Lewis said. The Heenes set in motion the balloon hoax in early October as a way to jump-start the reality-TV effort.

Heene began seeking money to buy helium tanks and studying weather patterns to find the right day for the launch. He eventually settled on Oct. 15; the weather was right, and his kids were home from school because of parent-teacher conferences.

The balloon floated away that afternoon with Falcon said to be aboard. The Heenes first called the Federal Aviation Administration, then a TV station and finally 911.

Authorities launched a desperate search for little Falcon, using military helicopters and a mounted posse, before the boy turned up at home hours later. The Heenes said they realized he had been hiding all along in the rafters after his father had yelled at him for fooling around with the balloon.

But the story soon began falling apart, especially after Falcon blurted out to his father during a CNN interview that evening: "You had said we did this for a show." The parents were brought in for questioning, with Richard Heene feigning sleep during his lie-detector test and claiming his drowsiness was a diabetic reaction, Lewis said.

They were ultimately arrested and pleaded guilty in November under deals with prosecutors that called for up to 90 days behind bars for the husband and 60 days for the wife, a Japanese citizen who could have been deported if convicted of more serious charges.

She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of knowingly filing a false report with emergency services, while her husband pleaded to a felony count of falsely influencing authorities.

-- Associated Press