Apparently is in his house now, found hiding in a box in the garage. Was never in the balloon in the first place.

I suspected this. About an hour ago I worked out the size of the balloon and did some math, and figured that on its very best day, that amount of helium (about 1100 cubic feet) would have had a lift of about 60 pounds at Fort Collins. During most of the flight, it was moving horizontally. This was while it was empty.

Now the average six year old weighs about 45 lbs. Assuming the balloon weighs maybe twenty pounds or so, I figured that it would be lucky if that balloon could get its ass off the ground at all with a kid in it, and if he DID fall, the balloon would have shot up like a skyrocket. It didn't do anything like that under observation.

So who the hell do I tell, I ask myself? I tried e-mailing and calling the local news outfit that was working this story, and couldn't get through. Ah well. It worked out, and the kid is safe, which is the important thing.