How did a Texas plumber's work truck end up in the hands of Islamic jihadists?

Mark-1 Plumbing used to make house calls in Texas to unclog people’s sinks. Now their old work truck is being used to fire jihadists’ rockets at incoming aircraft.

On Monday, the Ansar Al-Deen Front, a terrorist group fighting near the Syrian city of Aleppo, tweeted a photograph of some of its fighters in action. Oddly enough, they were standing in the back of a Ford F-250 pick-up truck mounted with an anti-aircraft gun and the seemingly misplaced logo and telephone number of Mark-1 Plumbing, the vehicle’s previous owner.

https://twitter.com/ansardeenfront/status/544559886160629760

Jeff Oberholtzer, whose father owns the Texas City company, says he has no idea his dad’s truck would end up in a warzone more than 6,000 miles away. The last time he saw the truck was when he traded it in last November at the Houston branch of AutoNation, the country’s largest automotive retailer.

“To think something we would use to pull trailers now is being used for terror, it’s crazy,” Oberholtzer told Houston affiliate station KHOU 11 News. “Never in my lifetime would think something like that.”

The unfortunate tweet hasn’t been great advertising for Mark-1 Plumbing. The picture has resulted in multiple threatening calls to the company, the son says.

“We have a secretary here, she’s scared to death. We all have families. We don’t want no problems,” Oberholtzer added.

According to CBS, Mark-1 Plumbing will “most definitely remove their logo and telephone number from any vehicles sold in the future.

AutoNation did not return Fusion’s multiple request for comment.

Fidel Martinez is an editor at Fusion.net. He’s also a Texas native and a lifelong El Tri fan.