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James Robertson's car presentation Friday afternoon at Suburban Ford in Sterling Heights. (Photo from Evan Leedy)
This certainly was swift, as befits a feel-good story that developed at Internet speed.
James Robertson, a 56-year-old Detroiter who works at a Rochester Hills plastics plant, leaves behind the epic daily commute that the Free Press showcased last Sunday.
The injection mold operator, who had been carless, was handed the keys to a 2015 Taurus this afternoon at Suburban Ford of Sterling Heights.
The dealership's gift caps a week in which Robertson made global news as online donations reached $310,000, the current level at a GoFundMe page started five days ago by WSU junior Evan Leedy.
"We did it!!!" the student, 19, posts on Facebook with the photo he took after driving Robertson to the Macomb dealer (earlier photo below). "My goal at the beginning was to get James in a beater to get him back and forth to work."
He describes the red Taurus as Robertson's "dream car" and adds: "This has been an amazing experience and I cannot thank everyone enough."
Leedy includes a hat tip to two others who raised smaller totals in separate GoFundeMe drives -- Jiyan Cadiz and Maggie Mastro . "I've raised over $2,500," Mastro says in a Thursday email to Deadline, "and Jiyan over $5,000."
James Robertson and Evan Leedy on Friday morning, heading to the Sterling Heights surprise.
The video below aired Friday night on WXYZ:
