Balloon Boy Drama: Who's to Blame?

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - The nation was riveted to their television screens on Thursday as a homemade, UFO-looking helium balloon drifted across two counties in Colorado, purportedly carrying 6-year-old Falcon Heene. After the balloon crash-landed and an extensive ground search ensued, Falcon emerged from his family's garage where he had been hiding in a cardboard box all along.

After the wild goose chase that involved hundreds of rescue personnel and military helicopters, people have been left wondering who's to blame for what happened.

The Heene family isn't a stranger to publicity. Last year the family, which includes Richard Heene , his wife Mayumi and their three boys Bradford, Ryo and Falcon, appeared twice on the ABC show "Wife Swap." On the show's Web site , the Heene household is described as "chaotic as a twister: the kids have no table manners and throw themselves around the house, and while Richard devotes every moment to his research, he expects Mayumi to cook, clean and run the house without any help."

The Denver Post reported in 2007 that Richard Heene is a storm chaser and an amateur scientist who often took his family on storm chasing excursions. The very balloon that Falcon was believed to have climbed into was a vehicle that Heene was building as a possible way of commuting in the future.

But allowing his children on his dangerous missions is what Heene's former colleague Barbara Slusser disagreed with. She told ABC News that Heene often puts his kids in harm's way.

"The last straw for us was when Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike were heading toward the Texas coastline and Heene wanted to go back there and take the kids," she said.

Readers responded to the balloon boy story with disdain for the parents. " What a waste of our tax dollars. These kids are delinquent and there should be a serious Social Services investigation here. Under no circumstance should there be a helium-filled balloon for kids to be able to freely play around...ridiculous," said johnniemays on the Denver Post .

Sara wrote on NYTimes.com , "Looks like a hoax to me -- this suspiciously untethered balloon takes off one slow news day like a bat out of hell, and the guy who built it has already been on reality TV? Hmmm...."

Added Tom Clancy , " I smell a rat. Instead of calling 911 he calls 9 News, why? Because he wants the publicity for his business and so far tonight on 9 News he got coverage as to what he does as a storm chaser. I hope he gets busted for this stunt. "

When asked whether the balloon incident was all a publicity stunt during a press conference, Heene angrily replied, "That's horrible after the crap we just went through. No."

Others overlooked the publicity stunt theories and defended the Heenes and their tough jobs as parents. Reader La Tosha wrote on NYTimes.com , "It's amazing how we are so willing to stone the parents. You cannot watch your kid every second of every minute of every hour. Sometimes you let them play in their room while you sit on the porch. Sometimes if they are 6 you let them have fun in the house. But hey, I'm sure you are all the most perfect parents ever."

Some are speculating that the kids themselves are partly to blame for the incident spinning out of control. The New York Times blog the Lede wonders if the three boys were involved in a cover-up. "The details were still a bit sketchy about how the helium balloon that Mr. Heene built actually left the backyard. It appeared there might have been a bit of collusion among the Heene brothers. Bradford, at 10 the oldest of the three brothers, was the one who told the family that Falcon has crawled into the helium balloon and had taken off. Mr. Heene said of Bradford: 'He was adamant about it, he was jumping up and down.'"

Falcon told reporters that his father yelled at him shortly before the balloon took off. "He scared me, he yelled at me," Falcon said. "I didn't want to get into trouble."

Officials said to cut the kids some slack as the boys likely feared they would face punishment. "They were besides themselves with worry," Larimer County Sheriff James Alderden said.