Mark Oberholtzer, whose business' name and phone number is visible in a viral photo tweeted by the jihadi group Ansar al-Deen, says he still gets death threats.
Oberholtzer, owner of Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, left the ‘Mark-1 plumbing’ stickers on the truck when he traded it in for a newer Ford pickup at AutoNation Ford Gulf Freeway in 2013.
A Texas Ford dealer resold Oberholtzer’s work truck without removing company’s decals and the plumber’s phone number, which were shown a year later in a propaganda film purportedly issued by a jihadi group while engaged in battle in Syria’s Aleppo.
Consequently, Oberholtzer filed a lawsuit against the dealer, who as he was waiting for the deal to be finalized, he attempted to peel off his company's decal, but was asked to stop by a salesman who told him it would damage the paint.
Oberholtzer is now seeking more than $1million in punitive damages for fraud, gross negligence, negligent misrepresentation, defamation and invasion of privacy and deceptive trade from AutoNation Ford Gulf Freeway.