Ex-girlfriend of Detroit man who walked 21 miles to work each day demands cut of $350K gift
Ex-girlfriend of Detroit man who walked 21 miles to work each day demands cut of $350K gift
The happy ending of one Detroit man who used to walk eight hours to work every day is being tainted by the greed of his ex-girlfriend.
James Robertson was recently able to move out of his Detroit neighborhood to a suburb with the more than $360,000 in donations he received in a crowdfunding campaign that started out as a means to purchase the 56-year-old a car.
But apparently his ex-girlfriend and former landlady wants a cut of his new wealth.
The Detroit Free-Press reports that Robertson has had to take out a restraining order against ex Tanya Fox, 60, who claims he owes her money.
‘He said he was going to give me $50,000 to fix up the house,’ Fox told the Free-Press, adding: ‘James was not a neat person; he got grease all over the wall’ in the apartment he rented from her for 15 years.
Fox is just one of many in Robertson’s old neighborhood who he has completely cut ties with.
‘I may have been born there, but God knows I don’t belong there anymore,’ Robertson said about his old neighborhood near Detroit’s New Center area.
The plastic-molding operator also said he didn’t tell people in his old neighborhood where he was moving.
The 56-year-old gained celebrity after the newspaper reported earlier this year that he began walking to a job at an auto parts factory when his car stopped working in 2005 and bus service was cut back.
A local college student launched a modest crowdfunding campaign to a buy a new car. It led to $360,000 eventually being raised and Robertson receiving a new, $35,000 Ford Taurus from an auto dealership.
He still works at the same factory in Rochester Hills which pays him $10.55 an hour, but the hours-long walking trip now is done in a 20-minute drive.
‘I’m going to keep working — that’s for sure,’ he told the newspaper.
Financial experts are donating their service to help Robertson manage his money. The 1-bedroom apartment in Troy costs him $800 a month in rent. He had been paying $880 per month for less space in his ex-girlfriend’s home in Detroit.
Most of his money now is in a trust that has a principal amount of $351,000. The earnings from the trust should be enough to keep Robertson’s nest egg untouched until he retires, said Rebecca Sorensen, a UBS Financial Services senior vice president for wealth management.
She is part of the financial team helping him.
People have stepped up because Robertson is unselfish and deserving, Sorensen said.
‘He wants the majority of the funds he received to be invested in a way that will someday provide an income stream when he retires,’ she added.
