The 'Wheel' Deal: Flossmoor Cop Gifts Bike Crash Victim with a New Ride

The first time Officer David Levy saw Terell White, the 22-year-old was lying on the pavement, barely breathing, seriously injured after being struck by a car while riding his bicycle to work in November. Levy worried he wouldn’t survive. White would spend months hospitalized, recovering from his injuries.

Levy thought that day might be the last he would see of White. Until just a few weeks ago, when White came to the Flossmoor Police Department in search of his beloved bike.

He had walked to the station from his home in Country Club Hills intending to get his bike and ride home. Levy broke the bad news — the bike had been mangled beyond repair. Still, White couldn’t part with it. They loaded it into Levy’s squad car, and he drove White home. As he pulled away, White stood silent in the driveway.

“He was just standing there, staring at his bike,” Levy said.

That look triggered something in Levy, who at the time was holding an online fundraiser for his softball team to travel to a tournament in Washington, D.C. He was compelled to buy White a new bike.

“I told myself, ’It’s so dumb. I’m capable. Nothing’s happened to me,’” he said. “I just switched gears, taking all money I had already raised. I didn’t think it would get that big. It just started flooding in.”

In just four days, he raised nearly $1,700 donated by more than 60 people. As the total grew, “it got to a point where I was almost uncomfortable handling that much money,” Levy said laughing.

He never wanted to draw attention to the gesture. He says he was just a cop doing something for his community. He had hoped to hand over a new mountain bike while off-duty in plain clothes. But when word of his good deed reached his superiors, they reached out to local news media. In a time of high criticism and intense scrutiny of police, a good cop carrying out a great deed would be big news.

Still Levy shirks the spotlight, almost uneasy at the attention.

“This has been done before,” he said. ”Police have done this. But I know police are taking a beating right now. I don’t want credit. I want to give credit to everyone else who helped.”

Levy bought the bike from Good Speed in Homewood, which will also provide free tune-ups for as long as White keeps the bike. He uses the bike as transportation to his job at Pizza Hut in Matteson, as he was doing the day of the crash when he was struck on Crawford Avenue, about a quarter-mile north of Vollmer Road. He endured five operations and was in an induced coma for three weeks.

White’s dedication and perseverance moved Levy to do whatever he could—and then some. The remaining money will be used to buy a new transmission for White’s car. As for his softball tournament, his Chicago Metro team composed of officers from 20 departments in the area still will travel to the Police and Fire Olympics in D.C. There, 20,000 athletes from 60 countries will compete. The trip is funded entirely by team members, but Levy’s portion will go entirely to the White family.

“I just wanted to help him,” he said. “Hopefully I can do it a hundred times over. Everyone needs help.”

None of the money will go to waste—they’ll use the remainder to replace the transmission on White’s car.

“Every single dollar will go to the family,” Levy said in a video. “You’re going to make this family very happy.”