Texas plumber sues dealer after truck seen in extremists' photo
HOUSTON -- A Texas plumber is suing a truck dealer after a vehicle emblazoned with his company's name and phone number - and carrying gun-toting fighters - appeared in a photo circulated by purported Islamic extremists.
Mark Oberholtzer filed the lawsuit against Charlie Thomas Ford Ltd., of Houston, last Wednesday. Oberholtzer wants more than $1 million to cover the damage to his company, Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, since the photo was circulated on social media in 2014.
Oberholtzer says he's received death threats and over 1,000 phone calls since the photo appeared online.
The lawsuit says the dealer didn't remove the Mark-1 decals as promised before shipping the vehicle to Turkey.
The dealer didn't return a call seeking comment Monday.
A photo posted to Twitter in December by the Ansar al-Deen Front, an Islamic extremist brigade seemingly comprised largely of Chechen fighters, shows the Ford F-250 with a militant standing in the bed firing the anti-aircraft gun.
Speaking to CBS News in December, a representative of the plumbing company in Texas City said the vehicle was sold to the AutoNation dealership in Houston in Oct. 2013, and that's the last they knew of it.
The representative of the plumbing company said they would "most definitely" be removing their logo from all vehicles sold in the future.