72-Year-Old Fisherman Falls Into Shark Waters and Laughs About It
October 13, 2026 — 65Nation
Some people slow down when life hands them a wheelchair. Bill Von Herbulis is not one of those people.
The 72-year-old grandfather of six has used an electric wheelchair ever since he broke his neck 19 years ago. And every single day, he motors over to the marina near his New Smyrna Beach, Florida home, wagon full of fishing poles and crab traps in tow, to spend time on the water he loves.
On the evening of September 27, that routine almost cost him his life.
Alone on a Dark Dock
Von Herbulis had spent the evening at his favorite fishing spot on a narrow private dock near Ponce de Leon Inlet, right at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. His wife of 41 years, Lori, had gone out for the evening. He usually fishes solo anyway.
It wasn’t a memorable night on the water. As the sun dipped down, he packed up his gear and turned his wheelchair toward home.
That evening, the dock was unusually empty. On a normal night, other anglers would be out there casting lines, and folks would be strolling along admiring the sunset. This time, he was alone.
At around 7:30 p.m., his wagon of gear bumped into a dock box and jackknifed. The jolt tipped his wheelchair over. Von Herbulis tumbled into the water and his cellphone went in right along with him.
Clinging to a Pipe in the Dark
He could have panicked. He didn’t.
“I looked up and swam up to the surface of the water,” he said.
Because it was high tide, he was able to reach up and grab an electrical conduit pipe sticking out between the boat slips. His wife later told Fox News Digital that at low tide, that pipe would have been four to six feet out of reach.
It “was the closest thing that didn’t have barnacles or oysters on it,” Von Herbulis said.
He called out for help. Nobody came. He kept hollering every thirty seconds or so, waiting. He knew Lori would come looking when she got home and didn’t find him there. But that could be a long time away.
“I’m thinking, am I gonna have to wait here all night?” he said.
Finally, a fisherman who had just arrived at the marina heard splashing and spotted Von Herbulis clinging to the pipe. But a locked gate blocked the man from getting any closer. He called 911, reporting a possible drowning. Lori Von Herbulis later called him “our angel.”
A Deputy Jumps In
At around 9 p.m. (nearly ninety minutes after Von Herbulis hit the water), Sgt. William Leven and Deputy Boris Rodriguez of the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the Minorca condominium community marina.
They found the overturned wheelchair on the dock. They could see Von Herbulis struggling to keep his head above water.
Bodycam footage shows Leven unbuckling his gun belt and getting into the water. He navigated carefully around the sharp oyster shells on the bottom and the barnacle-covered dock pylons surrounding him. He got a sheriff’s office buoy to Von Herbulis and even snagged a floating bag of Von Herbulis’s belongings before it drifted off.
With help from bystanders, the two deputies got Von Herbulis up the dock stairs and out of the water. He declined medical attention. They got him settled back into his electric wheelchair, and he motored home.
For his calm, quick action in shark-filled water at feeding time, Sgt. Leven is set to receive a Lifesaving Award. The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office posted video of the rescue on Facebook the following day.
Yes, There Were Sharks
New Smyrna Beach sits in Florida, the state the tracking organization Tracking Sharks describes as having the highest frequency of unprovoked shark encounters in the country. In September, a surfer was bitten on the foot by a shark in New Smyrna Beach, not far from where Von Herbulis was rescued.
As of September 2026, Tracking Sharks had recorded 44 shark attack bites globally that year. Thirteen of those were in the United States. None of the U.S. attacks were fatal.
Experts with the International Shark Attack File (a scientific project at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida in Gainesville) advise that one of the best ways to avoid a shark bite is to stay out of the water at dawn or dusk. They also recommend swimming with a buddy, avoiding areas where people are fishing, and avoiding splashing.
Von Herbulis, it’s fair to say, broke most of those rules that night. He fishes at that very spot regularly and has pulled in sharks himself, once landing one about seven feet long. Sharks often steal the redfish or snook right off his line as he reels them in.
He has fallen into the water twice before. Lori Von Herbulis said she doesn’t go to the dock with him because she is afraid of seeing it happen.
Back the Next Morning
As for Bill Von Herbulis? He joked that he avoided the barnacles and oysters because he “made a clean dive in the water.”
And the sharks?
“There’s obviously sharks in that water,” the grandfather of six said with a chuckle. “But they didn’t want me.”
He was back at the dock the very next day.
“He doesn’t miss,” Lori laughed.
