How can you ever really know what happens to your car after you sell it? Unless you unload it to a friend or someone in your town, it could go anywhere in the world, for all you know. Like, say, Syria, where it ends up as an anti-aircraft firing weapon used by Islamic militants fighting in the civil war.
No, really.
That's what happened to plumber Jeff Oberholtzer, who works for Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, Texas. TV station KHOU reports that Oberholtzer sold one of the company's Ford F-250 work trucks last November to an AutoNation dealership in nearby Houston.
From there, the truck went to auction, as used vehicles often do. God only knows what happened to it after that, but ultimately it ended up in the hands of fighters from a group named Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar, according to USA Today. They're an organization comprised mainly of of Russian and Chechen Muslim fighters and are deemed a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.
You've come a long way from Texas City, baby!
Oberholtzer and the rest of the western world learned of the truck's fate via a tweet from Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar which included a photo of the truck in its new role. It has the plumbing company's logo on the side and everything, which we can all agree is not a good look.
This has led to scores of furious phone calls and emails to Mark-1 Plumbing from people who believe they're aiding and abetting terrorism. (They aren't.) From KHOU:
"To think something we would use to pull trailers, now is being used for terror, it's crazy. Never in my lifetime would think something like that," said Oberholtzer.
But the small town business is now dealing with the fallout of angry, even threatening, phone calls from all over the country.
"We have a secretary here, she's scared to death. We all have families. We don't want no problems," said Oberholtzer.
Dear Islamic militants of the world: Can you guys do us a solid and take the logos off our vehicles before you use them to blow stuff up? It's embarrassing when this happens!
Hat tip to Boldride!