Balloon Boy Was Really Hunting UFOs, Not Weather

During the breathless news coverage of the "balloon boy" story a few days ago, and the somewhat outraged coverage that has followed in its aftermath, the balloon in question has been consistently characterized as a "home-made weather balloon." But the truth may be stranger.

As you may know, the Heene family (including "balloon boy") had been featured twice on the ABC reality TV show "Wife Swap," most recently in an episode that aired this March. In the 1 minute introduction to that March 2009 episode embedded below, the father, Richard Heene is described as a "French scientist and inventor" whose goal is to have his family, "build a flying saucer and hunt for UFOs, as they hope to find evidence supporting their belief that all humans are descended from aliens."