In 2013, a Texas plumber’s old 2005 Ford F-250 was seen being used by ISIS fighters in Syria. Despite having sold the truck, it still had the plumber’s business decal and business phone number.
Last week, Mark Oberholtzer, the former owner of the truck filed a lawsuit against the dealership he sold the car to.
According to the Houston Chronicle, a photo of the truck being driven by an Islamic extremist with another extremist firing a gun from the back of the truck was shared on Twitter and other social media sites.
The picture was also featured on the final episode of the Colbert Report, which was viewed by 2.5 million people.
The photo of the Islamic extremists using Oberholtzer’s old truck led to Oberholtzer receiving death threats. According to his lawyers, Oberholtzer now carries a gun protect himself, his family, and his workers.
“By the end of the day, Mark-1’s office, Mark-1’s business phone, and Mark’s personal cell phone had received over 1,000 phone calls from around the nation,” said a lawsuit filed in Harris County, Texas by his attorneys.
“These phone calls were in large part harassing and contained countless threats of violence, property harm, injury and even death. These phone calls included, but were not limited to, individuals who were: (a) irate and yelling expletives at whomever answered the phone; (b) degrading to whomever answered the phone regarding their stupidity; (c) singing in Arabic for the duration of the phone call or voice message recording; (d) making threats of injury or death against Mark-1’s employees, family, children, and grandchildren in violent, lurid and grossly specific terms; and, (e) directing expletive-laced death threats to whomever answered the phone.”
Oberholtzer said the photo ruined his life and business, and he is seeking more than $1 million from the company that he sold the truck, AutoNation Ford Gulf Freeway in Houston.
According to Oberholtzer, he took the truck to the Houston dealership in October 2013 to trade for a new car. At the dealership, Oberholtzer tried to remove the decal but was told not to because it would ruin the truck’s paint.
Oberholtzer was told that the dealership would take care of the removal of the decal and believed they did until he saw the photo of the extremists using the car.
The truck was sold at an auto auction in Dallas on November 11, 2013. The car was then shipped to Turkey on Dec. 28, 2013, and later ended up in Syria.
Attempts to reach the dealership for comments were unsuccessful.
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