"Balloon boy" found safe at home (pictures)

15 October 2009 @ 07:14 pm EDT

The Larimer County Sheriff announced that a 6-year-old boy reportedly to have climbed into a homemade balloon that took off and flew across Colorado on Thursday, has been found safe at home.



A small homemade helium balloon resembling a flying saucer and believed to be containing a 6-year-old boy is pictured floating thousands of feet above Colorado, October 15, 2009.
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The silver, flying-saucer-shaped balloon was shown on live TV as it soared up to 7,000 feet and drifted for miles across the Colorado skies, landing gently in a field after slowly deflating.

But the boy was not found inside the balloon after it landed.

"Apparently, he's been there (at home) the whole time," said Jim Alderden, the County Sheriff.

"Hiding in a box a cardboard box, in an attic above the garage," he added.

The boy was identified by the Denver Post as Falcon Heene.

The newspaper said the boy's father, Richard Heene, a storm chaser and amateur scientist, had built the contraption and that the boy's brother had seen him get inside before it broke loose from its moorings.

This article is copyrighted by International Business Times.

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