How did a Texas plumber's truck end up with Syrian rebels?
What happened when Texas City plumbers put a black pickup truck up for auction more than a year ago?
This week, Mark Oberholtzer is among those trying to piece together the story. An Islamic extremist group in Syria was photographed opening fire off of the back of that very same F-250 truck 鈥� the company鈥檚 name and phone number printed on the side 鈥� and that image is now .听
A representative of Mr. Oberholtzer鈥檚 company, Mark-1 Plumbing Company, that the company lost track of the truck after selling it to an AutoNation dealership in Houston last year.听
Were members of the聽Ansar al-Deen Front 鈥� or their reps 鈥� operating in Texas buying used trucks? Or was there a more indirect path?
Some observers have speculated that it must have taken many, many trades to get from the American South to the Middle East.
But Andrew Collins, who oversees Jalopnik.com鈥檚 , says the path from Texas to Syria may be shorter than some may think.
鈥淚f he traded it in, he would have no idea where it鈥檚 going,鈥� Mr. Collins says. 鈥淭he highest bidder takes it, and they can do whatever they want.鈥�
The truck could have been put on a cargo ship bound for a Middle East car dealer within days.听
Car auctions, held several times each week, attract both used car dealers and exporters, he says.
Exporters comprise a small minority of auction attendees and purchase cars that, generally, are in worse condition than the ones that American used car dealers buy, Collins says, who has also written about the auto industry for 海角大神.
Exporters then ship the cars overseas, where they are fixed up and resold.
鈥淭he next person to buy it could have been the exporter who sold it to the militants,鈥� says Collins, who himself bid in auto auctions for a car dealership for about a year. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if ISIS has representatives in the car buying world 鈥� I don鈥檛 know anything about them. But [exporters] could have shipped it to Syria and sold it to the people who mounted weapons on it. It still would have been a few steps removed from the original seller, but I don鈥檛 think it had to be that complex.鈥�
An AutoNation manager would not comment on the vehicle鈥檚 sale history to CBS News.
that he received a thousand calls and faxes between Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening about the photo of his pickup truck.
Oberholtzer鈥檚 son, Jeff, that he has received threatening phone calls from around the country.
"To think something we would use to pull trailers now is being used for terror, it's crazy," Jeff Oberholtzer says. "Never in my lifetime would think something like that."
