Richard Heene gets 90 days!

Okay he tried to make a few bucks out of the hoax ballon flight but his family was short of money, was it so wrong?

I think it's sad that people have to resort to such tactics in 2009 to scrape a living, what do you think members?

Hi Ron:  This is a case of what they refer to as "false reporting."  They take it very seriously over here.  When emergency services are sent out on a wild goose chase, not only is it a question of the costs, but it makes them unavailable to respond to a real emergency, which could, of course, result in loss of life.  Evidently the judge threw the book at him and rightly so.  He needed to be made an example of.  Your "15 minutes of fame," isn't something you should profit from if you break the law to do it.  Unfortunately that isn't always the case.  Part of the terms of his probation also dictate that he cannot profit from the incident for at least 4 years.  In other words, no book deals and no reality TV shows.

There are a lot of people hurting right now, financially. From what I understand, this guy's "dreams" are a lot bigger than he can afford.  It's sad really, but there are a lot of people out there right now in much worse circumstances than what this guy's are. 

I do understand what you are saying Ron but I also agree with the others - he has got to be made an example of or all the other publicity hungry people will be following suit.

It is a fine line when people are desperate for money. I believe that we should always be honest. However a minister has recently been criticised for saying that it is OK for hungry people to shop lift for food from the big chain stores. Again I know what his sentiment was but stealing is wrong. Difficult. I wish there was an easy answer. I learned along time ago that we must be careful how we judge people as we could end up having to learn the same lesson in life ourselves!

I have to agree with Ruth and Stephanie on this one. The man got just what he deserved. Christmas or not, this is not a case where an unintentional wrong was committed, nor was it a matter of life and death.

This man and his wife planned a stunt using their young son in hopes of getting their own reality series (as if we need another one of those useless shows). They knew what they were doing was wrong, yet, as Ruth said, they cost the tax payers hundreds if not thousands of dollars to send out emergency crews unnecessarily; making these crews unavailable for a real emergency.

In addition to all of this, they had to know that breaking the law would jeopardize her visa making it possible for her to be deported and placing their children in the tragic position of being taken away and put into foster care.

It was premeditated and stupid!