Father of Five Surprised with Car After He Would Bike to Work

A Michigan father of five was surprised with a car after he would ride 30 miles on a bicycle to work, even if it was frigid outside.

Sylvester Johnson would often commute from downtown Detroit to Troy, no matter how cold it was outside, that is, until his fellow Carvana employees shared their story about Johnson’s lack of reliable transportation, M Live reported.

Johnson works at Carvana’s Troy office as an assistant project manager for photo infrastructure development.

“We asked people across the company to nominate people they were inspired by, who they thought went through a tough time, but kept fighting and lived up to the Carvana values,” said Ernie Garcia, Carvana CEO.

Carvana, which opened up its first car vending machine in Michigan this year, is donating 21 vehicles to 21 employees across the country who were nominated by their coworkers for their perseverance during hard times.

When Johnson began working for Carvana, he did not have a car. He used a bike or rode a bus to work. His fellow employees said he was never late to work and did not complain.

When he finally got a driver’s license and a vehicle, Johnson was involved in a car crash.

“The real reason I wanted to nominated Sylvester was to get this out of our parking lot (shows picture of damaged van),” said coworker Davo Scheich. “The whole side is smashed in, the hood doesn’t close and it doesn’t have a driver’s window.”

Johnson is married with five children, and his youngest is about a year old.

Johnson is not the only employee formerly without a car to be surprised by his coworkers with a car at work. A group of UPS employees purchased a car for their fellow employee who had to walk 11 miles to work each day.