Balloon Boy Falcon Heene Hides 5 Hours, Like Tom Sawyer
Child experts say children hide out of fear, stress or need for attention.
Oct. 16, 2009 — -- For five hours, Falcon Heene -- part Tom Sawyer, part Huck Finn -- tucked himself away in the rafters of his Colorado garage, in some ways watching his own funeral.
Today, no one knows why the rambunctious boy hid as police, firefighters and the National Guard chased after an experimental balloon gone wild, or even if Thursday's incident was a hoax.
But hiding is not an unusual behavior for a 6-year-old, especially one who's been alternately described as "well-adjusted and fun-loving" and a "nationally known troublemaker."
Falcon's answer to authorities was that his father, Richard Heene, amateur scientist and storm-chaser, "scared me because he yelled at me."
But glimpses of the boy on a family YouTube video and on the reality TV series "Wife Swap" show a much more rebellious personality.
In the first season of the show, Falcon told his "new mom" and home-safety expert Karen Martel, "F**k this rule!" when she tried to rein the boy in.
"Hiding around doesn't always happen as a result of feeling guilty," said George Scarlett, a child development expert at Tufts University.
"I've known children around this age to hide as a way to exert control and feel powerful," said Scarlett. "Think of how powerful a small child momentarily feels knowing that others, mostly large adults who normally have control over him or her, are now searching for him or her. That's power."
Child specialists say most children hide because they are afraid of punishment. Before Falcon went missing, Heene told police he had yelled at his son for trying to get in to the experimental balloon.
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