Bill Von Herbulis has a simple routine. Every day, the 72-year-old grandfather rolls his electric wheelchair down to the marina near his home in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, towing a wagon full of fishing rods and crab traps behind him.
On the evening of September 27, that routine nearly cost him his life. Bodycam video released by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office shows how one sergeant made sure it didn’t.
A Wheelchair, a Dock Box and Dark Water
According to Fox News Digital, Von Herbulis had spent the evening at his favorite spot on a narrow private dock near Ponce de Leon Inlet, right at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a slow night. As the sun went down, he packed up and started back across the planks.
At around 7:30 p.m., the wagon carrying his gear bumped a dock box and jackknifed. His wheelchair tipped over, and he went straight into the water. His cellphone went with him.
Von Herbulis has not been able to stand or walk since he broke his neck 19 years ago. The dock was unusually empty that night. There was no one around to see him fall.
Holding On to a Pipe for More Than an Hour
He stayed calm. He swam up to the surface and grabbed the only thing within reach that wasn’t covered in barnacles or oyster shells: an electrical conduit pipe running between the boat slips.
His wife, Lori, later explained why that mattered so much. The tide was high. At low tide, she said, that pipe would have been four to six feet above his head.
So he held on. And every half minute or so, he shouted for help into the dark. He said he remembers wondering if he was going to have to hang there all night.
Eventually an angler arriving at the marina heard the splashing and spotted him. A locked gate kept the man from reaching the dock, so he called 911 to report a possible drowning. He never gave his name. The family still calls him their angel.
The Sergeant Who Took Off His Gun Belt and Jumped
Around 9 p.m., Sgt. William Leven and Deputy Boris Rodriguez of the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the private marina. They found an overturned wheelchair on the dock and Von Herbulis in the water, struggling to keep his head up, according to the sheriff’s office report.
The bodycam footage shows Leven unbuckling his gun belt, grabbing a rescue buoy and going into the water. Sharks are common in that water, and it was close to feeding time. Leven moved carefully around razor-sharp barnacles on the pylons and oyster beds below, got the buoy to Von Herbulis, and even snagged a bag of his belongings as it drifted away.
With help from bystanders, the deputies brought him up a nearby set of stairs and back onto the dock, then lifted him back into his wheelchair. He declined medical care and drove himself home.
“The Sharks Didn’t Want Me”
Von Herbulis regularly catches sharks off that very dock, once one he estimated at about seven feet long. He joked that he avoided the barnacles because he “made a clean dive.”
And he summed up the whole night with a line that made people laugh across the internet: there are obviously sharks in that water, he said, but they didn’t want him.
As for giving up his hobby? Not a chance. He was back on the dock the very next day. His wife of 41 years just laughed and said he doesn’t miss a day.
A Lifesaving Award and a Reminder for All of Us
The sheriff’s office shared the rescue video on Facebook the day after it happened, and Fox News reported that Sgt. Leven is set to receive a Lifesaving Award. The name of the angler who called 911 has not been made public.
A few simple takeaways from a night that could have ended very differently:
- If you fish alone, keep a phone in a waterproof pouch clipped to your body, not your chair or cart.
- If you hear someone calling for help near water and cannot reach them, call 911 right away. That anonymous call saved a life.
- Docks and piers get more dangerous after dark. Let someone know when you expect to be home.
One stranger listened. One sergeant didn’t hesitate. And a grandfather of six got to go home to his family and go fishing again the next morning.
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