Detroit man who walks 21 miles to work gets new car and $350K in donations

WATCH ABOVE: A Detroit man who shot to fame for his 21-mile daily commute to and from work is now behind the wheel of a brand new car. Roger Weber reports.

The story of a Detroit factory worker who walked 21 miles to and from work everyday for a decade has inspired an online fundraising campaign that has collected more than $350,000.

After The Detroit Free Press wrote about the hard luck story of resident James Robertson earlier this month a 19-year-old student from Wayne State University launched a crowdfunding campaign with the initial goal of raising $5,000.

The campaign not only surpassed its original goal, but on Friday the paper reported Robertson was given a Ford Taurus donated by a local car dealership.

READ MORE: Donations pour in for Detroit man who walks 21 miles to and from work

“I don’t like it, I love it,” said Robertson, 56, as he sat behind the wheel of his 2015 red Ford Taurus. “If only my parents could see me now.”

Robertson told the paper the story has also made him something of a local celebrity.

“I went to the casino on Saturday, and people wanted to get their pictures taken with me,” he told the newspaper.

The 56-year-old began the trudge to his factory job where he moulds parts after his car stopped working more than a decade ago and bus service was cut back across the city.

“All the years I’ve been walking, I’ve been thinking I had to make a way, get some transportation. And now I know that prayer works. But the best part of the story is that it got everybody talking about the bus system,” Robertson told the Free Press on Saturday. “Right here in Detroit, there’s just so many people in my situation (and), hey, we’ve got a problem with the buses. We gotta fix it.”