Texas plumber's truck goes to auction, becomes Syrian terrorist weapon - RoadandTrack.com (blog)
It's got nothing to do with plugged drains or leaks–and everything to do with Syrian terrorists, social media, and a cast-off Ford F-250 bearing the small business's name. As Houston news station KHOU reports , Mark-1's Jeff Oberholtzer traded in an old F-250 in October, 2013. The truck went to auction, still wearing Mark-1's name and phone number on the door. Fast-forward to this week, when Oberholtzer's truck appeared on Twitter in a decidedly different role:. The fast-cash nature of auto auctions makes it difficult to figure out exactly how the offcast Mark-1 truck went from Texas City, Texas, to, apparently, the front lines of Islamic-extremist rebel group Ansar al-Deen's fight in the Syrian Civil War. But it's made for a world of headaches for Oberholtzer, who's had to reassure people over and over that, no, the family-owned Texas business does not support terrorists. There's actually a straightforward explanation for how the truck ended up, allegedly, in Syria. The cars and trucks we think of as old and busted hold immense value in other parts of the world, and auction transactions happen fast. Oberholzer's truck likely changed hands several times and ended up in Syria before Mark-1 had fully broken in the vehicle that replaced it. From there, judging by the image on Twitter, it became part of Ansar al-Deen's fleet. Source: www.roadandtrack.com
