The father of the 6-year-old Colorado boy who was thought to have been speeding through the sky for hours in a high-soaring homemade helium balloon is a self-described "storm chaser" who now finds himself at the center of another kind of squall.
A portrait is emerging of a publicity-seeking man who fled California with unsettled financial affairs and whose recent colorful past includes an appearance on ABC's "Wife Swap," a series of unusual inventions and a self-produced hip-hip video.
A Foxnews.com search of public records revealed that Richard Heene, 48, and his wife, Mayumi, owe thousands of dollars in connection to a company called My You Me Productions. Prior to moving to Colorado, Heene and his wife were aspiring actors in Los Angeles who met at an acting school, a source told Foxnews.com.
The state of California filed a $5,812 tax lien against Heene in 1993, and records show a small-claims judgment of $5,000 was filed against him in Los Angeles County in 2006. County tax liens totaling roughly $2,000 were found in connection to the production company, which is now known as Alternate Reality Productions, according to productionhub.com.
A former associate of Heene's told Foxnews.com he met the aspiring actor and filmmaker during the mid-1990s while working in a restaurant in Woodland Hills, Calif.
"He was trying to be an actor, he was trying to be a filmmaker," Perry Caravello said. "He and his wife were developing films and they were developing ideas for shows and piecing together stuff for different companies."
Caravello, who starred in 2003's "Windy City Heat," a made-for-television movie that appeared on Comedy Central, said Heene tried to become a part of the project but was shunned by its principals. Soon thereafter, Heene began crafting the idea of the "Psyience Detectives," Caravello said.
"He was totally bizarre with all that garbage," Caravello said. "We were like science detectives and storm chasers. Actually, it was very deadly, the storm-chasing stuff. He'd drive a motorcycle into the center of a tornado to get his readings. He would get on this itty-bitty motorcycle and just go."
The flailing project continued without much fanfare, Caravello said, until May 2006, when he and Heene got involved in a physical altercation in Diamondville, Wyo., while chasing a tornado.
"He punched me up in Wyoming," Caravello said. "That was the last time I spoke with him."
Caravello claims Heene still owes him $1,000 lent to him by Caravello's late mother.
"I was his assistant, his right-hand man, per se," he continued. "And I'd like to know when he's going to pay me."
Caravello said he was "totally shocked" when he realized it was Heene's 6-year-old son, Falcon, who authorities believed was soaring above the earth in one of his father's homemade aircraft.
"It clicked," he said. "The name Heene clicked in my brain. I was totally shocked at what I was reading."
Caravello said he has no doubt that Thursday's dramatic scene was somehow connected to Heene's desire to make it in Hollywood.
"It was a publicity stunt because Richard is not in the limelight like he used to be," he said. "He wants to be in the entertainment field. What will this guy go through or put up with to become a celebrity?"
Caravello said Heene, a diabetic, loved to eat "sweet things" and was also known to be messy. The two frequently partied and did drugs together, he said.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,567640,00.html
This just gets better and better. The parents know the kid blew their story up last night, so now they get him to play sick to distract from it. If the kid was really sick, then why let him do the interview at all?
Linear Mode
