Off-duty Border Patrol agent rescues driver from burning vehicle in Farmington Hills

Border Patrol Agent John Leslie says he used bowling ball to rescue driver

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. – Several people stopped to help a man from a burning car that crashed on Northwestern Highway in Farmington Hills Saturday night.

“If I didn’t get to him by the time the police got to him, it would have been too late,” said Border Patrol Agent John Leslie.

Leslie described the heart-stopping moment he noticed a man trapped inside an SUV after a single-vehicle crash on Northwestern highway.

“My wife in the passenger seat looked and said ‘John, there’s a car on fire,’” said Leslie, who is also a trained EMT. “I’m thinking to myself ‘I gotta get this guy out of here or I am going to watch him burn.’ So I poked my head into the driver door and I can see the driver over there. He was semi unconscious.”

Knowing it was a race against the clock, Leslie tried all he could do to get the man out with no luck. That is until saw his saving grace in the back seat.

“Just miraculously in the back seat, this guy had a bowling ball. I had smashed that window in and I popped the door open,” he said.

Other bystanders were lending a helping hand to the man who was just rescued.

“Everybody in this world expects somebody to do something. It comes across your path, you gotta take the opportunity because a lot of the time there isn’t somebody else,” said Leslie.

“That minute we got him out, I looked and that fire has already engulfed the entire thing.”

The man in the vehicle is unconscious but stable and is expected to recover.

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About the Author:

Victor Williams joined Local 4 News in October of 2019 after working for WOIO in Cleveland, OH, WLOX News in Biloxi, MS, and WBBJ in Jackson, TN. Victor developed a love for journalism after realizing he was a great speaker and writer at an early age.