A 72-year-old disabled Florida man’s relaxing night of fishing could have turned into his worst nightmare had not a first responder saved him after he fell from his wheelchair into predator-filled waters of the Atlantic and spent more than an hour alone in the dark.
Bill Von Herbulis, despite his disability, still fishes and works his crab traps daily at a private marina near his New Smyrna Beach home on Florida’s east coast south of St. Augustine.
But one night in late September a freak encounter with something on his dock sent him into the ocean during prime feeding time for toothy Atlantic predators in Florida waters such as sharks, barracudas, and moray eels.
Enter into the situation Volusia County Sheriff’s Sgt. William Leven, who is set to receive a Lifesaving Award for jumping into the water and hoisting him over sharp oyster shells and barnacle-encrusted dock pylons to safety.
A bodycam video of the rescue has surfaced and gone viral.
Von Herbulis had been in the Atlantic for more than an hour calling for help when an arriving fisherman heard splashing and saw him clinging to the pipe.
However, the angler could not get to the man because of a locked gate on the dock and then apparently called 911 for help, initiating the rescue caught in the video.
Von Herbulis ended up in the water because of a couple of anomalies in his normal routine.
First, the retired water treatment plant operator has been told not to fish alone at night for his own safety. But he went to his spot before the sun set, according to Fox News’s report of the incident.
Also, that evening the private condominium dock was unusually vacant of fishermen.
So, that night Von Herbulis was alone.
The retiree uses his motorized wheelchair to access his spot on the dock, pulling beside him a wagon stuffed with fishing and crabbing gear.
At about 7:30 p.m., he decided to turn home and was motoring over the planks as he headed for its exit when his wagon of gear bumped into some kind of box on the dock and jackknifed, jostling the wheelchair and causing it to topple over.
That sent the retiree tumbling into the water, dunking his cellphone in the salty ocean waters as well.
After emergency services received an anonymous call of a “possible drowning,” Leven and his partner, Deputy Boris Rodriguez, arrived around 9 p.m. at the condo marina.
They found the overturned wheelchair on the dock. They found Von Herbulis “struggling to keep his head above water,” according to a sheriff’s office report on the incident.
As Fox News described what happened next:
Bodycam footage shows Leven shedding the belt holding his gun holster before getting into the water with a sheriff’s office buoy. Careful to avoid the sharp oyster shells below and razor-like edges of barnacles on the dock pylons all around, Leven got the buoy to Von Herbulis. And he snatched a bag of Von Herbulis’s belongings as it floated away.
Von Herbulis said the unknown fisherman who called authorities for help probably didn’t belong at the dock and was violating condominium rules.
“We don’t think he belonged there — not that we care, because he was our angel,” the fisherman’s wife of 41 years, Lori Von Herbulis, said. “But he didn’t have a key to get in.”
The incident apparently has not slowed down her husband, who cannot stand or walk since fracturing his neck 19 years ago.
As for fishing, “I was back the next day,” he said.
“He doesn’t miss,” his wife said.
Breitbart News contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
