On Oct. 15, 2009, a father in Fort Collins, Colorado, speaks to a 911 operator, claiming that his homemade dirigible has escaped from the family backyard, carrying his 6-year-old son inside. This stranger-than-fiction claim is backed up by footage from a news helicopter, which catches up with the balloon and televises the chase. What starts as a local emergency quickly escalates into a national one, as everyone from the local sheriff’s department to the National Guard scrambles to come up with a plan to safely rescue “Balloon Boy.”

As the balloon softly lands, a captivated nation prays for a miracle reunion — only to discover that no boy is inside. But what appears to be a tragedy takes a sharp turn into something else. Public sympathy quickly turns into righteous outrage, as Balloon Boy quickly becomes one of America’s most infamous — and bizarre — news stories.  

Balloon Boy is part of the Trainwreck documentary anthology, which revisits the headline-making events that went terribly wrong. It premieres on July 15.