<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/42o668Cnx54" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/42o668Cnx54</a>]]>Richard Heene gained infamy as the father who faked the story of his son being lifted away by a runaway balloon as a TV show pitch. Now Heene wants to lift you and your stuff with his $17,000 robot.
As seen in the promotional video above, Heene's conviction and jail stint for faking his son Falcon's ascent has not imacted his ability — first showcased on "Wife Swap" — to make strangers question his sanity. Like a meth-addled Billy Mays, Heene shout-screams his way through the demonstration of the HeeneDuty Truck Transformer, which appears to be an electric platform sized to fit into a standard truck bed. The thing (featuring "Zoomer Technology," named after Heene's dog) also has fold-out panels and a ladder to act as a lift platform or scaffolding separate from a truck. On his HeeneDuty site, three varieties of the Truck Transformer are available, starting at $13,639 and rising like a silvery homemade airship to $17,000 for the 8-foot version.
Watch Balloon Boy's dad pitch his ,000 robot lifterGive Heene some credit: Modern standard-duty pickups can easily haul at least a ton of payload, more than most people would care to lift by hand. Hence the invention of the forklift, dozens of which are for sale in any given city for less than $13,000. But everday forklifts don't have Zoomer Technology, and whether its a few pallets, airborne hoaxes or delusions of grandeur, Heene knows how to lift things up.
