Update on James the Detroit Walking Man

The latest update on James Robertson the Detroit Walking Man is good news.  He has gotten away from his landlord/girlfriend and her family. He is safe and happy in the suburbs.  James is the man who walked 21 miles to and from work each day.  He is a much richer, happier man since his story came to light.

The Detroit Free Press first told us about 56 year old James Robertson.  How his car broke down ten years ago, and how he has been walking most of the way to work ever since.

No matter what the weather, he never missed a day and he was never late.  Sometimes walking 21 miles a day.

A local college student saw the story and launched a Go Fund Me account hoping to get James a new car, but James got much more.  $360,000 was donated plus a local dealer gave him a brand new, $35,000 Ford Taurus.  Another fundraiser brought in $6,000, which was used to buy new furniture for his apartment.

James still works at the same factory  which pays him $10.55 an hour, but the hours-long walking trips are now over.  He still gets up at 6:30 am, but he now gets seven hours of sleep instead of 2.

Since he moved, his commute is now 20 minutes in his brand new car. His new apartment is in the suburbs, costing $800 a month, and he has much more space than he had at that  $880 a month room in the boarding house.   The ex-girlfriend he rented from is still after him. James had to get a protection order against her.

James told the paper, he had to get out of his old neighborhood, "I may have been born there, but God knows I don't belong there anymore”.  He didn't even tell people in his old neighborhood where he was moving.

He has new friends now, including the college student, Evan Leedy,  and the man who brought the story to the Detroit Free Press, UBS Financial Services VP Blake Pollock. He used to give James a ride every now and then.

Financial experts are donating their services to help James manage his money.  Most of it is now is in a trust that has a principal amount of $351,000. His financial teams believes the earnings from the trust should be enough to keep the nest egg untouched until James retires.  But James doesn't plan on doing that anytime soon!