A Florida sheriff’s sergeant jumped into a dark marina to save a 72-year-old wheelchair user who had clung to a pipe for about 90 minutes.
Story Highlights
- On the evening of Sunday, September 27, Bill Von Herbulis, 72, tipped off a dock into a New Smyrna Beach marina while heading home from fishing.
- He held on to a pipe for about 90 minutes and yelled for help behind a locked gate.
- Volusia County Sheriff’s Sgt. William Leven went into the water with a rescue buoy and helped bring him out.
- Von Herbulis turned down medical care and was back fishing the next day.
How A Fishing Trip Turned Into A Rescue
Bill Von Herbulis is a retired water treatment plant operator and a grandfather of six. He has used an electric wheelchair since he broke his neck 19 years ago, and he still fishes and crabs at a private marina near Ponce de Leon Inlet, the opening that links the Halifax River and Mosquito Lagoon to the Atlantic Ocean. At about 7:30 p.m., as he headed home, the cart carrying his gear hit a dock box and jackknifed. His wheelchair tipped and he went into the water, along with his cellphone.
“I looked up and swam up to the surface of the water,” he said. He grabbed an electrical conduit pipe between two boat slips. It was the only thing in reach not covered in barnacles or oyster shells. His wife of 41 years, Lori, said that at low tide the pipe would have been 4 to 6 feet out of his reach. He yelled “Help!” about every 30 seconds. “I’m thinking, Am I gonna have to wait here all night?” he said.
A Locked Gate And A 911 Call
Another angler heard the splashing and the shouts and saw him in the water. A locked gate kept that man from reaching him, so he called 911 and reported a possible drowning. He did not give his name. “We don’t think he belonged there, not that we care, because he was our angel,” Lori Von Herbulis said. “But he didn’t have a key to get in.”
Deputies were sent at about 8:55 p.m. Sgt. Leven and his partner, Deputy Boris Rodriguez, found the wheelchair tipped over on the dock. The sheriff’s incident report says Von Herbulis was “struggling to keep his head above water.”
What The Bodycam Shows
Body camera video shows Leven taking off his gun belt and going into the water with a sheriff’s office buoy, a float rescuers hand to a swimmer to hold on to. He steered clear of sharp oyster shells and barnacle-covered posts, got the buoy to Von Herbulis and even grabbed a bag of his things that was floating away. With help from bystanders, the deputies got him up nearby stairs and back onto the dock. New Smyrna Beach firefighters checked him over. He turned down further medical care and rode home in his wheelchair.
The sheriff’s office posted the video the next day and praised the sergeant. The agency said Leven will receive a Lifesaving Award.
Sharks, A Joke And A Return To The Dock
Von Herbulis knows what lives in that water. He once caught a shark about seven feet long, and sharks often steal part of his catch. “There’s obviously sharks in that water,” he said. “But they didn’t want me.” He joked that he “made a clean dive.” He has fallen in twice before, and his wife does not go with him because she does not want to see it happen.
None of it kept him home. “I was back the next day,” he said. His wife put his skill more simply: “He doesn’t miss.”
Why This Rescue Matters
An anonymous neighbor who made a phone call, and a sergeant who did not wait for a key, turned a long, cold night into a story with a happy ending. Body camera video lets the public see that kind of courage for itself. It reflects the best of America’s first responders and the communities that back them with the training, gear and trust they need to do the job.
