Balloon Boy Dad Invents Truck Accessory
Do you remember the balloon boy hoax? The man behind the fiasco was named Richard Heene, and if you’re a fan of Dick Heene than I’ve got great news: he’s looking for attention again.
He’s introducing the HeeneDuty™, a “pickup truck robot” for contractors that promises to do everything a working truck owner could need.
Click the image above to visit the HeeneDuty website
The HeeneDuty™ device is a combination scaffold/work bench/toolbox for contractors that rolls in and out of the truck bed carrying everything a contractor needs. While the device may have some merit (a little), there’s no denying that the man behind the HeeneDuty™ “truck robot” hurts the product. Not only because of his role in the balloon boy fiasco (a stunt that cost Colorado and US taxpayers about $2 million, give or take), but also because of promotional videos like this one:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42o668Cnx54[/youtube]
Can you say “train wreck”? That video stopped being interesting at precisely the 0:05 second mark. The funny thing is, it GETS WORSE…
You can order your very own HeeneDuty™ truck robot online…the five foot model (five feet in length, perfect for a crew cab half-ton truck with a short box) costs an outrageous $13,639.68. The eight foot model for long-bed pickups costs $17,333.76(!)…roughly the price of a brand new Toyota Tacoma (excluding rebates).
Anyone else think that $13-$17k is a stretch for a rolling scaffold with diamond plate toolboxes attached?
For the cost of one 8′ HeeneDuty™ truck robot you could…
- Buy a brand new compact truck
- Buy a late-model used Toyota Tundra
- Pay a temporary contract worker $16 an hour to carry your stuff for you, two hours a day, for about the next two years
- Buy all sorts of cool truck storage accessories to hold all your gear and still have enough money to take the whole family to Disney
- Keep doing what you’re already doing – most contractors have been successful without anything like Heene’s “truck robot.”
My point? There’s no way in hell a contractor will buy this thing. It just doesn’t back out…the only thing good I can say about this guy is that he loves his Tundra. And that he’s willing to ask his wife to strip down to her bra and run in front of the camera for a low-quality YouTube video:
Anyone else think they could talk their wife into stripping down to her bra and running in front of the camera for a YouTube clip? If so, send me a link!
Or am I wrong – anyone seriously considering buying the HeeneDuty™?
NOTE: Images pulled from the HeeneDuty website and publicly available YouTube video. Don’t get it twisted – we’re just reporting the news here.