I KNEW IT! BALLOON BOY BLOWS UP HIS DAD ON CNN! HIS DAD ASKS HIM WHY DIDNT YOU COME OUT WHEN YOU HEARD US CALLING YOU? HE SAID "YOU SAID THAT WE DID THIS FOR A SHOW"!

Turns out the Falcon never left the nest.
A 6-year-old Colorado boy, believed lost aboard a UFO-shaped homemade balloon designed by his dad, was found hiding inside his family's garage after a dizzying day of highs and lows.

Falcon Heene was as terrified as the national television audience riveted by the modern-day Dennis the Menace's escapade.

"I thought I would get in trouble," the 40-pound boy told reporters outside the family's home Thursday in Fort Collins, Colo.

His still-shaken mother, Mayumi, called it "a miracle to see him."

Father Richard Heene, clutching the boy tightly, explained he had scolded Falcon earlier in the day for climbing into a battery box attached to the bottom of the silver saucer in their backyard.

The boy scampered away into the garage, climbed into the attic and hid in a box, his family said. But his older brother, 10-year-old Brad, thought he was still in the battery compartment.

And when he saw the experimental low-altitude helium balloon soaring into the blue Colorado sky, he ran inside and told his dad Falcon was airborne.

Richard Heene, an amateur scientist, blamed himself for the scare. "I yelled at him," he said between tears. "I'm really sorry I yelled at him."

Falcon said during an interview on CNN last night he could hear his family calling for him as he hid in the attic.

"You did?" Mayumi Heene said.

"Why didn't you come out?" his dad said.

"You had said that we did this for a show."

Pressed to clarify what his son meant, Richard Heene became irritated and said he didn't ask his son to explain.

Earlier in the day, Richard Heene snapped when asked if the affair was a publicity stunt. "That's horrible," he said.

The Heene family had been two-time contestants on the reality show "Wife Swap," but wound up starring in a TV spectacle of different sort as the runaway balloon became national news.

As Falcon hid in the dark, footage of the balloon's two-hour, 50-mile odyssey aired live from coast to coast. Pilots tracked its path while it cruised at 7,500 feet, and the Denver International Airport was briefly shut down.

The silver craft finally wafted gently to earth in a dirt field - but rescuers and emergency medical personnel discovered the boy wasn't with the balloon, setting off another panic.

"It looked like an alien spaceship you see in those old, old movies," said landing witness Jason Humbert. "You know, those black-and-white ones.

"I asked a police officer if the boy was OK and he said there was no one in it."

The Larimer County sheriff's department continued its search of the home and surrounding neighborhood throughout the ever-changing ordeal.

Just before 4 p.m., they landed the Falcon.

"I've seen this before," said Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderen. "Once the child realizes people are looking for them, they hide."

Heene said the family doesn't believe in grounding their kids - but promised to keep a closer eye on Falcon.