Screenshot shows plumber's truck in Syria
Screenshot shows plumber's truck in SyriaTwitter/Screenshot

A plumber from Texas has been receiving a deluge of hate calls and even death threats, after footage from Syria showed one of his company's pickup trucks being used by ISIS terrorists as an anti-aircraft battery.

Mark Oberholtzer told CBS news that he had no idea how the truck found its way into ISIS's hands.

A picture of the vehicle was first posted on Twitter by the Ansar al-Din brigade of ISIS, showing one of its fighters firing an anti-aircraft gun from the top of the truck during clashes, possibly in the Aleppo region. The "Mark-1 Plumbing" logo and even company phone number were still emblazoned on the side, and since then Oberholtzer says his company has received thousands of angry calls and faxes, with some accusing him of "aiding and abetting terrorists."

But he insists his company has "nothing to do with terror at all."

He says he sold the truck to AutoNation dealership in Houston on October 2013. Although he usually removes company markings before selling a vehicle, he claims he did not on that occasion due to an understanding that AutoNation would remove it before selling it on.

"They were supposed to have done it and it looks like they didn’t do it. How it ended up in Syria, I’ll never know," he told Galveston Daily News.

"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. “We have a secretary here, she’s scared to death. We all have families. We don’t want no problems."