Balloon Boy’s father is finally getting a dose of reality.
Wacky scientist wannabe Richard Heene — who convinced the world his 6-year-old son, Falcon, was trapped on a balloon soaring over Colorado and allegedly hoped to parlay the hoax into a reality show — has come crashing back to Earth.
Friends and associates are tripping over one another, rushing to law enforcement with stories about his months-long planning to set the stunt in motion, suggestions of domestic abuse, information about his long-buried criminal past, and details of his bizarre theories about space aliens and Armageddon.
Among their revelations:
* Robert Thomas, a 25-year-old researcher who shares some of Heene’s strange ideas on weather and had worked with him, provided authorities with evidence that Heene “intended to perpetuate a hoax intended to drum up interest in a reality show,” according to Thomas’ lawyer.
“He [Thomas] thinks it went off prematurely,” lawyer Linda Lee said of the balloon launch. Thomas said Heene began planning the stunt months ago.
* Cops visited Heene’s home twice in the past year for domestic disturbances and offered to put his wife, Mayumi, 45, in a safe house after the alleged fraud was exposed.
* Heene, 48, whose temper tantrums were documented on his two appearances on the ABC reality show “Wife Swap,” served jail time in 1997 in Los Angeles, court records show. He was charged with misdemeanor vandalism, vehicle tampering and disturbing the peace. He pleaded no contest to vandalism and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, two years’ probation and $100 restitution, said an LA prosecutor’s spokesman.
* Heene believes he was once kidnapped by extraterrestrials who run a shadow government and that Armageddon will come in 2012.
Heene’s mom says she’d like to think her son is not a liar.
“Richard told me he firmly believed Falcon was in the aircraft, so I support him until proven otherwise,” “Entertainment Tonight” quoted the mother as saying. The show did not identify her.
Last night, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden told Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly that criminal charges would be filed next week and that the couple “could probably avoid prison” even if convicted of conspiracy and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The sheriff also said the Heenes could get socked with up to $2 million in fines by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Meanwhile, Heene’s lawyer, David Lane, made a request to officials on behalf of his client and Mayumi.
“I’ve said, ‘Look, these folks are willing to turn themselves in the minute that you give me the phone call,’ ” Lane told NBC.
“Do not do the perp walk for media consumption . . . That’s traumatic for kids.”