Family of Balloon Child hit with $42K fine

John Biggs

Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... → Learn More

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

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The family of the fake flying balloon boy, the Heenes, whose strange, sad story so captivated us for about an hour two months ago has been hit with a $42,000 fine for the cost associated with tracking the balloon through the skies of Colorado.

Update: The dad’s going to jail for 90 days. Merry Christmas, hack.

I was once enamored by this family so dedicated to science as to have a balloon that could even potentially lift a small child in their back yard. But after learning of the father’s sad, strange fame-whoring and their goals of being on reality TV, I think the feeling I’m going for is disgust. I hope these kids are able to look past their parent’s failings and that they work this out.

via Giz

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