Texas plumber Mark Oberholtzer has been dealing with a public-relations headache for the last year after a truck bearing his business’s name ended up in the hands of ISIS. The truck was shown in ISIS Twitter feeds, outfitted with a mounted machine gun but still bearing the name and phone number of Oberholtzer’s Mark–1 Plumbing.
Oberholtzer is now suing AutoNation, the dealer he traded the truck in to, claiming that he was told the dealer would remove the decal. Last December, his business was the subject of hundreds of irate phone calls and threats, and he’s had to dig himself out of a hole on Yelp, where most of the reviews are now kind people rating him five stars out of sympathy.
In a statement to ABC News, AutoNation expressed sympathy for Oberholtzer but defended their process, saying, “The truck came in on trade and was immediately sent to auction. The auctions in most accounts will prep the vehicles. We have the paperwork that shows the steps the vehicle took.”
