Texas teen gets new truck, $15K after tornado flipped it in viral video

FORT WORTH, Texas — After a video of his red pickup truck went viral for being flipped over by a tornado, an Elgin teen got a new truck from a Fort Worth-based Chevrolet dealership.

Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet in Fort Worth told WFAA that they contacted 16-year-old Riley Leon and would give him a brand new 2022 Chevrolet Silverado.

Leon got his new truck on Saturday, March 26. The dealership also gifted him $15,000. Leon’s brother sent video of the 16-year-old getting his new keys to WFAA sister station, KVUE.

Watch here: 

Leon was driving home on U.S. Highway 290 from an interview with Whataburger when his truck was flipped on its driver side, then flipped back onto its wheels before he drove away from the chaotic scene. 

The shocking video was posted on Twitter by Brian Emfinger, a storm chaser, on March 21, the day a tornado outbreak ripped through Central Texas.

Leon told WFAA sister station, KVUE, the tornado seemed to have come out of nowhere.

RELATED: 16-year-old driver of red truck tossed in Texas tornado says he’s lucky to be alive

“When I landed on my wheels my hands landed on my lap and I saw everything and I was like probably nothing happened,” said Leon. 

“I wasn’t scared that much, but it was a shocking moment for me,” said Leon.

But the teen pulled over on U.S. 290 and saw that his red Chevy truck was dented and scratched with the glass shattered. 

“It broke me down seeing my hard work is gone,” Leon said. “It is family-owned but my dad passed it to me but I paid him off.”

Now, Leon will don some new wheels, courtesy of Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet.

According to a preliminary report released by the National Weather Service, the Elgin tornado was an EF-2 tornado with winds of 130 mph and a track length of 14 miles.