A 6-year-old boy was found hiding in the attic at home Thursday, several hours after the runaway flight of his family's experimental balloon riveted the nation and led to a frantic search for the child, who was feared to have fallen from the craft.First things first: young Falcon is fine and unharmed. A missing child is no joke, ever. Not in America in 2009.The news that the boy was safe at home came during an afternoon press conference with Larimer County Sheriff's Office officials.
"Apparently the boy’s been there the whole time. He’s been hiding in cardboard box in the attic above the garage," Sheriff Jim Alderden said.
"I don't want to conjecture but this is not first time we are searching for a kid and once he realizes everyone is looking for him he hides because he's afraid of getting in trouble."
One of boy's older brothers had initially told authorities he saw his brother climb into a box compartment attached to the bottom of the balloon before it became untethered and took off.
"He was very adamant. That was his consistent story," the sheriff said.
On the one hand, it's a kid in a balloon. Local law enforcement is just not equipped to handle balloon rescues of a six-year old. Where the hell is that in the manual, ya know?
On the other hand, searching the place basement to attic at the same time might have been a good idea too. Surely somebody was detailed to do that, right? Balloon was on the roof of the house, so searching the area around that, like the attic, would seem like a logical place to start.
Then again, logic dictates that most houses don't come with their own experimental weather balloon, so assigning logic in order to make sense of the story fails on a number of levels anyway.
Again, the important thing is the boy was found unharmed. The Larimer County Sheriff's Office there did their job: they recovered the balloon, found the child, and nobody was harmed in the end, so a win is a win. Kudos to them. They had to think fast and act fast and performed admirably, and even if they found the boy right off the bat, they still would of had to deal with the balloon in a safe manner, which they did.
Still, science should be used responsibly, folks.
It's a miracle. He was teleported into the box by magic doves.
ReplyDeleteBased on the family history, ie a couple of stints on Wife Swap, it sounds like a bunch of attention hounds. I hope the little boy is okay, and I mean for the long term.
ReplyDeleteamerika punk'd by a 6 year old
ReplyDeletebut that's how amerika rolls these days