A Texas plumber was left bewildered after a truck he sold last year resurfaced this week -- in the hands of Syrian rebels.
One of Mark Oberholtzer's old work trucks appeared in a photo tweeted by a Syrian rebel group, prompting an influx of threatening phone calls to the plumber.
His truck, with its original decal for "Mark 1 Plumbing" and a phone number for the business, is reportedly being used by the militant group to transport an anti-aircraft gun.
The original tweet, below, was posted to an account associated with the Jabhat Ansar al-Din militant group based in Syria. Oberholtzer traded in his truck to a Texas dealership that then placed it up for auction in 2013.
#جبهة_أنصار_الدين #جيش_المهاجرين_والأنصاررشاش (٢٣) يحرق الأرض من تحت أقدام النصيرية والرافضة في #حندرات pic.twitter.com/3ZalpDNG8N— جبهة أنصار الدين (@ansardeenfront) December 15, 2014
Other images of the truck have also popped up on the Twitter account, including this one showing the mud-covered vehicle from October:
الله أكبر التصدي للطيران الحربي باﻷسلحة الثقيلة أثناء تقدم المجاهدين لدحر النظام النصيري #جبهة_أنصار_الدين#حندرات pic.twitter.com/9nV9EYQE4u— جبهة أنصار الدين (@ansardeenfront) October 10, 2014
"We had no intentions or no idea this would even happen," Oberholtzer said in the video by local television station KHOU. "Something that we would use to pull trailers and things like that, I mean, to now a truck to be used in terror, I mean that's crazy."
In an interview with KHOU, Oberholtzer said he's had to take his phones off the hook due to angry and threatening calls from across the United States.
His phone number appears on the bottom of the truck, while the the full company logo and name remains on the side.
It is unclear how the car ended up thousands of miles away in the Aleppo province of Syria. Jabhat Ansar al-Din is an alliance of smaller militant factions established in July 2014 that functions in the hotly contested Aleppo area.
According to the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, the group is made up of the Green Brigade, Jaish al-Muhajrin, Sham al-Islam and Harakat Fajr al-Sham, which includes both local and foreign fighters.