Article by Kieran Nicholson and Howard Pankratz of The Denver Post. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Photo credit 9News via The Denver Post.

“He’s been located! He’s alive! He’s at the house!”

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden interrupted a media update in Fort Collins to announce that the 6-year-old boy thought to be missing in a balloon craft has been found alive at his home.

“Apparently, he’s been there the whole time,” Alderden said. “Hiding in a box a cardboard box, in an attic above the garage.”

The sheriff indicated he did not think Falcon Heene’s parents knew the boy was there: “They were besides themselves with worry,” he said.

Falcon’s 9-year-old brother told investigators and his parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, that Falcon was in the balloon when it went up.

Officials had searched the home and neighborhood, but the initial search did not turn up the boy.

Alderden pointed out that it is not uncommon for children to hide when they learn people are looking for them because they don’t want to get in trouble.

The incident started this morning in Fort Collins when it was reported that Falcon got into the balloon-like craft built by his father, and it came loose from a tether.

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said the “homemade flying saucer” was made of plywood and string and was never intended for flight.

Bob Licko, 65, a neighbor, told the Associated Press he was leaving home when he heard commotion in the backyard.

He said he saw two boys on the roof with a camera, commenting about their brother.

“One of the boys yelled to me that his brother was way up in the air,” Licko said.

Licko said the boys’ mother seemed distraught and that the boys’ father was running around the house.

Officials from Larimer, Weld and Adams counties worked this afternoon with the Federal Aviation Administration and assistance from the 9News helicopter to track the balloon. It was aloft about three hours, sometimes drifting as high as 8,000 feet.

The balloon traveled about 50 miles during its flight and hit estimated speeds of about 30 mph. At times, it gained altitudes and then dropped as it flew in and out of rising thermals.

It made a soft landing in a Weld County field. When Falcon was not found with the balloon, a massive search for him was launched from Fort Collins across Weld County to the Adams County border.

Alderden said the box or basket that Falcon was thought to have crawled into was still attached to the balloon when it was found, although the box was damaged.

Larimer County put out a reverse 911 call asking people to be on the lookout for Falcon.

Crews on the ground in Weld County asked for all-terrain vehicles, four-wheel drives and horses to help search working farmlands and hilly pastures.

Firefighters and police from various departments were searching wide areas in both Larimer and Weld Counties, keeping track of “grids” as they moved along.

Margie Martinez, spokesperson for the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, said during the flight that officials were not sure the boy was still in the balloon because it was impossible to look into the basket during flight.

Richard Heene is an amateur scientist based out of Fort Collins. He and his partners call themselves the “psyience detectives.”

Heene is a storm chaser who collects data to prove that rotating storms create their own magnetic fields.

He began his research in 2002 with lab experiments, then moved on to dust devils. In 2005, he flew a plane around Hurricane Wilma’s perimeter. He took The Denver Post with him while chasing storms in 2007.

Heene and his wife, Mayumi, have sons Ryo and Bradford in addition to Falcon.

They have recently been featured on the ABC TV series “Wife Swap.”

In a promotion for one of the Heene episodes, “Wife Swap” described the family this way:

“When the Heene family aren’t chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm.”

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Where you following along on Twitter or with the News when this was taking place? What are your thoughts?