[RealJustme]

The dude starts a GoFundMe site asking people help him buy a car because he has to walk 42 miles a day to get to and from work and has been doing it for 10 years, and people actually give him $300,000.00 and a new car, he has photos of him struggling through 3 feet of Mich. snow. Walking 42 miles would take the average man 15 hours (on level ground without snow) and that's without stopping, taking breaks, eating, bathroom stops etc. So lets say he skipped eating, resting, bathrooms stops and does his 8 hour shift, that leaves 1 hour a day to sleep, eat, etc and he's been doing that for 10 years? Only in America are people so stupid.

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (WJBK) - The story of James Robertson has reached those across the world by now. He's the Detroit man who walks 21 miles to and from work every day and has been doing so for 10 years.

It all started with a story in Sunday's Detroit Free Press and has blossomed into a phenomenon. A complete stranger even started a GoFundMe for Robertson, which has now collected more than $300,000.

The outpouring of support for the so-called 'Walking Man' continues to roll in, and Friday he was surprised with a new car at Suburban Ford in Sterling Heights.
Robertson, 56, was greeted with a round of applause at the dealership Friday.

He looked as if he might cry as he checked out his new car, a red Taurus.

He says he doesn't just like his new car, "I love it," he said.

Finally a new ride for the man whose 1988 Honda sedan broke down 10 years ago. Since then he's been using buses and his boots to get to his job in Rochester Hills from his house in Detroit.

It has been a long time since he's driven a car. The last time he drove, he had a set of keys. Now, he just has a fob.

Once he heard the sound of the engine, he was overcome with emotion and gratitude.

"He almost started to cry, and I said 'James, you can't do that, you are going to make me cry too,'" said David Fischer, Jr. of Suburban Ford.

Evan Leedy, the Wayne State University student who started the GoFundMe account, was also emotional.

"It was incredible, I almost started crying," Leedy said. "My goal was just to get him in a 'beater' something to just get him to work and back.

"I had a goal of $5,000 to raise."

Instead the fund has raised over $300,000 and the dealership delivered the Ford Taurus - which was exactly what he wanted.

"The reason I picked the Taurus, I remember the old Taurus from the 1980s," Robertson said. "They never were this fancy or anything, but like me they have a strong heart from the inside.

"I would like to thank all the people who made all the contributions, you guys are the real heroes as far as I'm concerned."

Lots of heroes in this story - banker Blake Pollock noticed Robertson walking on Crooks Road and started giving him rides a year and a half ago.

He's the one that got the story to the Detroit Free Press which first spread the story.

Now he says, James will have to drive him.

"I told him, he gets this car and I'm selling mine and I'm his responsibility now," Pollock quipped. "I am glad he is going to have the independence that a car provides."

Because it has been a long time since James has driven, a member of the dealership is going to give him a ride in his new car to work and show him the new technology. After he gets his tutorial, he is off to work his perfect attendance record intact, and his trip a whole lot nicer.

"Whenever I step in, it will remind me of where I've been," James said. "And where I'm going right now."

[Clownkicker]

Tool, where did you get the "42 miles a day to get to and from work"?.
Your own article clearly says "21 miles to and from work".

You can't just change the numbers right in front of everyone and expect them not to notice your bald faced lie.

I know, that's exactly what your handlers did to you and you didn't notice it. :lol:

[Clownkicker]

By the way, your 15 hours to walk 42 miles for an "average man" is bullshit anyway.
I walk about 4 miles per hour on the road when not rushing.

A 42 mile trip on the road would take me a bit over 10 hours if I weren't rushing and I walked a steady pace.
A 21 mile trip, like the one he faced, would take around 5 hours a day, not 15.
If he stayed in good shape, I wouldn't be surprised if he walked it in 4 hours.

This means he spent around 13 hours a day on his job. Not unusual at all for those with gumption.
I know, you don't actually work at all so you can't imagine it.

[RealJustme]

Clown because I am a better man that you, I admit I may have misunderstood the misleading story that he walks 21 miles to and from work to mean he walks that many miles each way. Even walking 10.5 miles each way every day for 10 years doesn't cut the mustard. This is a obese 56 old man with self admitted diabetes...no way is his story credible. It was a scam and it worked.

Concerning your claim you can walk 4 miles an hour therefore you could walk 21 miles in 5 hours also doesn't cut the mustard. I can run a mile in under 7 minutes but that doesn't mean I can run 21 miles in 2.45 hours. By the way a slow walk is 2 miles per hour, the average speed for a healthy male is 3 miles an hour but not for sustained periods of hours. I suspect the only reason you're defending this scammer is because he's black, take your color blinders off dude. He made 300K using a lie to beg for money.

If you watched his interview on the news the guy had a hard time getting out of the chair to shake the guy's hand who gave him the new car, his co-workers are probably laughing their ass off, one has already came out and said he rides a bus to and from work and walks (limps) less than a block to his place of work.

[sillydaddy]

No nigger is going to walk 21 miles a day for a job...not in Detroit or anywhere else.

[RealJustme]

But it was a $10.50 an hour job, who wouldn't he walk 21 miles a day for 10 years to keep a job like? it's not like there was a job in Detroit any closer for such a hard working dedicated guy like him. It doesn't meet the smell test, anyway you look at it.

[Clownkicker]

Tool, if you were a better man than I, you wouldn't be doing the old conservative shuffle with "I MAY have misunderstood..."
You would just grow a pair and come out and say "I misunderstood..." But your ilk never does that. You still try to make excuses for being taken in by your handlers.
You still try to make excuses for your vile nature slipping out.

If you were a better man than I, you wouldn't claim to have misunderstood after using virtually the same phrasing of "42 miles a day to get to and from work" to indict the guy, when the article uses virtually the same phrasing of "21 miles to and from work"
If you had used different phrasing one could believe you may have misunderstood, but you just thought you could get away with pretending "to and from work" means a two-way trip when you say it, while it means a one-way trip when he says it.
That's either dishonesty or stupidity.


"Concerning your claim you can walk 4 miles an hour therefore you could walk 21 miles in 5 hours also doesn't cut the mustard. I can run a mile in under 7 minutes but that doesn't mean I can run 21 miles in 2.45 hours."-RealTool

No, it isn't because I simply multiply my per hour pace by five. It's because I can walk all day at a steady pace. I've done it many times. I regularly walked 15 to 20 miles a day in the past on trails with a 35 pound load on my back while looking at the scenery. I can do it today as well.
If you were a better man than I, you could do it too.
If you ever did it you would realize that running and walking are not at all comparable in terms of how long the pace can be sustained.

Tool, three miles per hour is the average walking pace of adult humans, not just men.
Men can often do much better than women on that type of physical task, if only because they have longer legs on average. But they also typically have greater muscle mass. My natural relaxed gate is faster than all the women I've ever hiked or walked with over an extended distance. A lot of men go faster than I.
A guy walking to work would presumably be walking with intent instead of looking at the same old scenery for ten years.

If you were a better man than I you wouldn't look at the condition the guy is in today to judge whether he walked to work 5 years or 10 years ago.
Maybe that's why this story came out now. Maybe the guy is just worn out from the grueling routine after so many years. Maybe he came down with an illness that makes it impossible for him to walk to work any longer.
I don't know and neither do you.
The difference is, you PRETEND you know when you don't know jack shit about it.

If you were a better man than I, you wouldn't even be pursuing this story because you only do it to lick the boots of your handlers and to get the likes of sillyracist to chime in saying what you're too gutless to say.
You dishonest clowns are always saying guys should be working two minimum wage jobs to provide for themselves instead of taking handouts. Then you belittle a man who makes the effort to work one $10.50 an hour job and say it's beyond belief.
Some guy does what it takes to get ahead and you have nothing but ridicule for him and anyone who had a part in helping him.
If he was a Republican you would be cheering him as an example of how it's done. But you're all hypocrites.

[sillydaddy]

What I do believe is that this guy found a sucker, sold him on his bullshit story, and is now laughing all the way to the bank.
Clown, you are intelligent enough to know that is exactly what happened.

[RealJustme]

Clown, you are intelligent enough to know that is exactly what happened.

Clown knows it's a bullshit story he's just not man enough to admit it.

[elklindo69]

Clown, you are intelligent enough to know that is exactly what happened.

Clown knows it's a bullshit story he's just not man enough to admit it.

Hedge fund managers scam investors for billions in fees, when performance is awful when compared to S&P 500 index fund. See Buffett challenge to hedge fund managers. And to top it off, they exploit a loop hole that allow income to be calculated as long term capital gains as opposed to ordinary income.

Now a guy making 10 bucks and change gets a new car to get to work...What a travesty!!!

:o

[RealJustme]

Elk why do liberals always justify someone's wrong actions by pointing out wrong doings by others? Obama did that during the prayer breakfast in front of 3,000 international guests, he said although the militants are wrong Christians in past have killed and owned slaves, Muslim terrorists couldn't have written a better speech to defend their actions. In fact although Obama condemned "Christians" he didn't condemn Muslims.

[elklindo69]

Elk why do liberals always justify someone's wrong actions by pointing out wrong doings by others?

I don't know, but if you are insulted by history, perhaps you should buy textbooks from Hallmark...

History is a bitch ain't it!!!

:lol:

[sillydaddy]

Hedge fund managers scam investors for billions in fees,.....elk

So ...following elk's twisted logic.....the guy has the right to scam anyone who's stupid enough to believe his story.

[johnforbes]

The headlines were often very deceptive on this story.

When snow is deep, I sometimes walk on park trails with the wife. It takes about 40 or 45 minutes to walk 3 miles in snow with no rapid pace, and that this what this fellow was shown on TV doing (trudging along).

But apparently he used bus transport for much of the distance.

The other question is why the story was so widely covered, and that was likely because so many in his situation lack motivation.

[Clownkicker]

It's refreshing to see johnforbes support my assertion that 4 miles per hour is quite doable, even in the snow, even by his wife.

[johnforbes]

They said on TV that sometimes this fellow walked an extra 7 miles if he missed one of his bus connections.

I've never lived in Detroit, but my first thought was why a few people don't get together and buy him a used car or some economical new car.

With the crowd funding, that's apparently been done.

Now he needs some non-predatory advice as to where to put his money. He isn't likely to have investment experience, so perhaps a credit union for his limited purpose?