Weird News

Bosonic

(3,746 posts) Wed Dec 17, 2014, 12:25 PM Dec 2014

Texas plumber's truck on front line of Syria war

Texas plumber's truck on front line of Syria war

A pickup truck once owned by a plumbing company in Texas has somehow found its way to the front lines of Syria's civil war and been converted into an anti-aircraft weapon for Islamic militants.

A photo posted to Twitter on Monday by the Ansar al-Deen Front, an Islamic extremist brigade seemingly comprised largely of Chechen fighters, shows the Ford F-250 with a militant standing in the bed firing the anti-aircraft gun.

Speaking to CBS News Tuesday morning, a representative of the plumbing company in Texas City said the vehicle was sold to the AutoNation dealership in Houston in Oct. 2013, and that's the last they knew of it.

The company has been besieged by phone calls -- including threats -- since the photo appeared online, clearly showing the company's name and phone number. CBS News is not identifying the company due to the nature of some of the attention it has received.

They have employed an attorney and intend to pursue legal action to force Twitter to remove the photo from the Internet.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-plumbers-truck-on-front-line-of-syria-war/

3 replies

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Highlight:

Texas plumber's truck on front line of Syria war (Original Post) Bosonic Dec 2014 OP

I bet Texas plumber-boy is having wet dreams about getting his truck back as-is. Aristus Dec 2014 #1

Isn't pulling off the livery part of getting rid of such vehicles? 47of74 Dec 2014 #2

Remids me of this old story: Stolen U.S. vehicles end up as bombs in Iraq, FBI says jakeXT Dec 2014 #3

Aristus

(66,316 posts)

1. I bet Texas plumber-boy is having wet dreams about getting his truck back as-is.

Reply to Bosonic (Original post)

Wed Dec 17, 2014, 12:29 PM

Dec 2014

"Dang! Ah could rilly mess somethin' up with THIS!"

47of74

(18,470 posts)

2. Isn't pulling off the livery part of getting rid of such vehicles?

Reply to Bosonic (Original post)

Wed Dec 17, 2014, 03:13 PM

Dec 2014

jakeXT

(10,575 posts)

3. Remids me of this old story: Stolen U.S. vehicles end up as bombs in Iraq, FBI says

Reply to Bosonic (Original post)

Wed Dec 17, 2014, 04:37 PM

Dec 2014

Stolen U.S. vehicles end up as bombs in Iraq, FBI says

Published: Monday, July 16, 2007

WASHINGTON — Fifteen years after U.S. states were directed to share motor vehicle information in a national database, only nine states have done so, making it nearly impossible to identify hundreds of thousands of stolen vehicles - including a small but steady number that end up as car bombs in Iraq.

FBI officials said they believe the database could help break up far-flung terrorist networks, which are using vehicles stolen and smuggled from the United States.

Bought and sold on the international black market, cars and trucks help fund criminal operations and can be turned into the terrorist weapon of choice against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians: vehicles packed with explosives. The FBI declined to estimate how many stolen U.S. cars have turned up as car bombs in Iraq but said the number is believed to be at least in the dozens.

The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System was created in 1992 to thwart motor vehicle thefts, but it remains a patchwork repository at best.

Authorities say the system, which has the potential to track every car or truck in the country by its vehicle identification number, has languished because of years of local government inattention, a lack of urgency among state motor vehicle departments, and inconsistent federal funding.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/world/americas/16iht-16cars.6683928.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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