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FORT COLLINS, Colo. - A flying saucer-shaped helium balloon drifted away from a home in Fort Collins, Colorado Thursday. However, contrary to earlier fears, there was not a 6-year-old boy inside.

The Larimer County Sheriff's Office says the family of Falcon Heene kept the saucer behind their home on Fossil Ridge Road in Fort Collins.

His brothers initially told officials the boy, identified as Falcon Heene, climbed into the basket attached to the saucer and, somehow, the rope that held the aircraft in place became untied at about 11:00 a.m.

Authorities say the balloon may have risen to an elevation of approximately 15,000 feet as it drifted over Colorado's eastern plains. Due to high winds in the area, experts say the balloon may have reached speeds of nearly 60 miles per hour.

During a news conference outside the family's home at 4 p.m. local time, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden announced that Heene had been located, alive and well. The boy had been hiding inside a cardboard box in the attic of the family's garage, Alderden said, giving reporters a 'thumbs-up.'

Concerns the boy was inside the balloon as it drifted over northern Colorado prompted a emergency response, and massive media coverage. Helicopters tracked the balloon in-flight waiting for it to come down on its own.

Around 1:40 p.m., the balloon came down on its own, crashing into an open field near 160th Ave. & County Road 79, just south of Keenesburg, in Adams County, approximately 50 miles southeast from where it first took flight.

Richard Heene, the boy's father, is a known weather tracker and it is believed the balloon was built for weather monitoring.

The Heene family appeared on the ABC television show "Wife Swap." A website for the show said when Heene family members aren't together 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."

A photo of the family on the show's website shows what appears to be the helium saucer in the background.