Boy flies off in a Ballon :(

Busted on CNN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxtFXtiUbbw&feature=player_embedded#

These people are shameless attention whores, but unfortunately it's too hard to prove by the criminal law standard of beyond a reasonable doubt so they will get away with wasting the resources that the state spent indulging their narcissism.

Might be possible to sue them, though.

All that helium gone to waste.

The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers. He dialed the employee's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whispered,"Hello?".
Feeling put out at having to talk to a youngster the boss asked, "Is your daddy there?".
"Yes," whispered the small voice.
"May I talk with him?" the man asked.
To the surprise of the boss the child whispered, "No."
Wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, "Is your mommy there?"
The child whispered, "Yes."
"May I talk with her?"
Again the small voice whispered, "No."
Knowing that it was not likely that the young child had been left home alone, the boss decided that he would leave a message with the person that was there watching the child. "Is there anyone there besides you?" the boss asked.
"Yes." whispered the child "A policeman."
"May I speak with the policeman?"
"No, he's busy." whispered the child.
"Busy doing what?" the man asked.
"Talking to mommy and daddy and the fireman" came the whispered answer.
Growing concerned and even worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the ear piece on the phone. The man asked, "What was that?"
"A hello-copter." answered the whispered voice.
"What is going on there?" asked the boss, now alarmed.
In an awed whispering voice the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copter."
Alarmed, concerned and more than just a little frustrated the boss asked, "Why are they there?"
Still whispering, the young voice replied along with a muffled giggle, "They're looking for me.

I saw that!!

And lets not forget how many people were worried about this. (see first few posts)

I wasnt one of them.

It takes a really large helium balloon to lift a person.

They must really suck at searching their house that they couldnt look in the attic.

Can't vouch for the attention whore thing, but it's definitely a case of rank stupidity.

Who leaves a helium balloon tethered in a back garden where there are young boys around?

Haven't they read any Calvin and Hobbes?

Maybe they had their draw distance turned down too low.

Dangit Brenda.

/me goes to get wet cloth to clean keyboard.

I found this on another site, it wasn't linked, so I am not sure where it came from. But it is funny as hell.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/40056.html

Emergency Computer Aided Dispatch system is put to the test…

Operator 1: “911, What is your emergency?”

Caller: “My 6 year-old son just drifted away in a helium balloon!”

Operator 1:“Can I have your phone number in case we get disconnected?”

Caller: “Yes, its 555-1234.” Oh, please, I don’t know what to do! It’s starting to drift away!”

Operator 1: “You say your son is floating away in a balloon?”

Caller: “Yes!”

Operator 1: “Hmm, I don’t see that in any of the emergency dispatch responses in the computer. Hold on a second.”
To Operator 2: “Hey, this lady says her kid’s floating away in a balloon! Where is that in the computer?”

Operator 2: “Kid in a balloon? (scrolling through computer choices) I don’t see that either. Just go with “Generalized Weakness.”

Operator 1: “OK ma’am, I have it now. Is he conscious and breathing?”

Caller: “I guess so, he just climbed into the balloon. I can’t really see him right now. He’s a thousand feet overhead. Please send help!”

Operator 1: “I’ll send someone out. Is his breathing normal?”

Caller: “What? I don’t know! He’s breathing HELIUM!”

Operator 1: “Is he having any chest pain?”

Caller: “Are you kidding me? He’s in a freaking balloon!”

Operator 1: “I understand you’re anxious ma’am, but I need you to try and stay calm. I need you to answer my questions so we can get the proper response crews to you.”

Caller: (calming down) “OK, I’ll try. Please send someone; the balloon is drifting out of sight!”

Operator 1: “How old is he? Does he have any medical problems?”

Caller: “Six. And no, he’s perfectly healthy.”

Operator 1: “How long has he felt weak?”

Caller: “Weak? What are you talking about? Haven’t you been listening? He climbed into an experimental balloon I was building with my husband and it drifted away with him inside it?”

Operator 1: “Oh that’s right. Sorry, I’m trying to use the computer script for ‘Generalized Weakness.’”

Caller: “WHAT?”

Operator 1: “So the balloon drifted away with your 6 year-old husband and he’s feeling weak?”

Caller: “Oh my God!”

Operator 1: “OK ma’am, the ambulance is on its way. Do you want me to stay on the line till they arrive?”

Caller: “An ambulance? Why are you sending an ambulance? He’s in a freaking BALLOON! Thousands of feet in the air! What is an ambulance going to do?”

Operator 1: “Ma’am I need you to try to stay calm so I can send the proper response crews…”

Caller: “Oh sweet Jesus! Never mind, I’ll call CNN!” (Click)

Operator 1 to Operator 2: “What a bitch! Some people just don’t know how to speak to another human being.”

Operator 2: “So she canceled the call?”

Operator 1: “Yeah. Says she’s gonna call CNN. Freak. Like they’d be interested.”

Operator 2: “Hmph!”

Tonight in SL we are doing a performance art piece to reenact this tragic event

and little Falcon threw up cookies on this TV interview today ROFL

http://www.tmz.com/videos?autoplay=true&mediaKey=b77c6834-512b-4ae0-a42e-71685dbe3f8a

i couldn't tell how big it was until it landed and i saw how big the man trying to grab it was..i imagined some little kid in there rolling around..but then i looked and didn't see a door and was like ..how the hell could they get in there lol

soon as they started talking about him not being in there the no door thing started to make sense lol

The Story of My Life.

Jig for the win!

"Darwin Award" kept coming to mind while I watched increasingly silly reports on this story.

That said, I'm glad the kid is okay, of course. I'd be willing to bet they found the kid before they let on, but soaked up the attention a while on tv. Now they are making the round$.

There was a guy in the 1990s I guess (I heard about it today) who strapped a bunch of weather balloons to a lawn chair and rose to 16,000 feet. They know that because an airplane pilot saw him float by.

Imagining that pilot's face was my laugh for today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/8310816.stm

Pep (A better story about a boy and a balloon.)

That's a very sweet story.

Over here, balloon releases generally are not allowed, because birds swallow them or some such palaver. (Or maybe fish do.)

I'm so glad I didn't follow this 'balloon boy' story the past week - it was on the news all day long? Helicopters were tracking it? Where did they think the boy could've been, since there was nothing attached to it and no way into it? Lol... I only learned of this via Yahoo. It's bad enough cameras follow stolen cars all day long. Is there really nothing better (or worse) to report?

TiVo caught a snippet of the nightly news last night, and it mentioned the word hoax. Well it took a day or so but finally the media has caught on. I had thought this was the 'Wife Swap' dad soon as I saw him but I'd only caught a glimpse of him in the report. Sure enough.

Anyone who's seen that episode (don't ask why, I had that series on TiVo for a while) would've scoured the home for that child, who may well have been locked inside the attic. That family seems it will do anything for its version of fame. Simply put, they are a pack of nutters.

I don't believe that boy, who can't stop wriggling for ten seconds, could've stayed anywhere for hours unless drugged, bribed or locked in, and possibly not even then. This smells like an engineered hoax, even worse than I'd originally given allowance for - in which case the parents should get jail time and hefty fines. How many police depts. were tied up chasing this hoax instead of helping people who actually needed it?

What does it take to stop rewarding these types of famewhores, and to keep them off tv?

Don't feed the trolls.

Pep (I've always wanted to say that justifiably.)

/me nods.

I asked the wrong question.

What does it take so the media/advertisers/viewers stop feeding the trolls?

Apparently this guy is a media/fame whore now after being on Wife Swap and being interesting enough that the family was brought back for another episode -- and apparently he has recently submitted some idea involving his family for a reality tv show.

At the bare minimum, they need to pay for all of the Search and Rescue costs -- but given that they are also very heavily in debt, I doubt they can pay for any of it.
.

LOL! I find it totally HILARIOUS that people bought into this story!!

They just proved the Father was right- American Audiences are gullible enough to buy into anything.

OH! HEY!! There's a 6 yr old trapped in a well in my town!!! Someone alert CNN!!! LOL!!

Not everyone was taken in by it - especially those who recognised the father from his prior exploits.

He was a famewhore even *before* Wife Swap; he went on that show in an attempt to publicise the 'wacky science family' reality show concept he was shopping.

i guess charges are being brought on them..



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_boy_in_balloon