Heene's Kiddie Video: 'Let's Play in Boxes'

(Oct. 20) -- Long before his 6-year-old became known as "Balloon Boy," Richard Heene was urging kids to play in cardboard boxes, much like young Falcon was supposedly doing last Thursday, when authorities feared for the boy's life.

In an obscure, self-produced children's video provided to AOL News, the 48-year-old handyman, storm-chaser and reality TV star teaches boys and girls handy tricks to turn old boxes into homemade playhouses, with the help of an animated, talking cardboard critter named "Boxter."

"We've got to go to my garage!" Heene tells kids in the video, published in 2000, with his wife Mayumi, then pregnant, by his side. "I have some really cool things in my garage!"

Coincidentally, the Heenes told a story last week about Falcon hiding in a box in the garage, while National Guard helicopters followed the 20-foot-by-5-foot flying saucer-shaped helium balloon that they thought the boy was floating in, 50 miles across Colorado.

The Heenes' story seemed to unravel on CNN's "Larry King Live," when Wolf Blitzer asked the boy why he was hiding, and Falcon told his father on air, "You guys said we did it for the show."

Calling the incident a hoax, authorities said they will announce next week whether the parents will face felony charges.

If indeed the Heenes cooked up Falcon's hiding-in-a-box story, the "Box Time" video shows just how much fun they thought children could have in a corrugated fantasy land.

In the half-hour video, Heene magically transports kids to Boxville, where they sing, dance and decorate boxes alongside characters like Builder Bette and Professor Squeezebox.

All the while, Boxter, the talking box, shouts out things like, "Let's build a fire truck! … This is going to be fun! Wee!"

The "Box Time" video and Heene's storm-chasing, UFO-hunting exploits were featured 10 years ago on FlashNews, a wire service that dubbed Heene "The Bob Vila of Cardboard Boxes," a moniker that editors say he heartily embraced.

"He saw them as toys for kids whose parents couldn't afford toys," said former FlashNews editor David Moye, who provided the tapes to AOL.

"It was probably in pretty bad taste, but it didn't at all register with him. He's a guy who loves publicity."

FlashNews also reported that Heene later adapted his "Box Time" box-building method to construct emergency shelters for the homeless.

In a 2005 interview, Heene details a way to reinforce boxes with duct tape, shingles and latex paint. He claimed this structure could be slapped together in a half-hour and withstand 20-mph winds. He was was especially eager to turn cardboard boxes into makeshift homes for evacuees after Hurricane Katrina.

"On some level what he was saying made sense," Moye said. "But … it was all way out there."

Heene has long been known for his bizarre antics. On ABC's "Wife Swap" he told of once passing out at a restaurant and hearing space aliens speak to him.

Authorities said Heene and his wife cooked up the helium balloon story to promote a future reality TV show that they were pitching.

"We certainly know that there's a conspiracy between the husband and wife," Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said in a news conference Sunday.

Investigators also believe that Falcon and his brothers, who are 8 and 10, were "100 percent involved" in the alleged hoax.

Charges won't be filed against the children because of their ages, and they remain in their parents' care, though authorities say they are contemplating charging the Heenes with delinquency of a minor.

"On the bizarre meter, this rates a 10," Alderden said.

As the investigation now stands, even Falcon's hiding spot is in doubt.

"For all we know," the sheriff said, "he was two blocks away playing in a city park."

One thing about Falcon's whereabouts is certain: He wasn't magically transported to Boxville, and he didn't get there in a silver helium balloon.