QUESTION: How Did a TX Plumber’s Truck End Up In Syria Being Used By Islamic Jihadis?

Honey, have you seem my truck keys? Wild story.

Mark Oberholtzer isn’t an Islamic fighter in Syria. He’s never been to Syria. And the plumber from Texas City, Texas, says he certainly would never willingly aid fundamentalist rebels.

So it’s hard for him to understand how his Ford F-250 pickup truck – including his logo for Mark-1 Plumbing and his phone number – wound up being in a photo posted on Twitter by the extremist Ansar al-Deen Front from the front lines of the war in Syria.

Mr Oberholtzer says he’s been getting hundreds of phone calls and faxes since the Ansar al-Deen Front tweeted a picture of what appeared to be his old truck with an anti-aircraft gun in the back, according to the Galveston County Daily News.

However, it remains to be seen if the photo is entirely authentic, with a new video surfacing which suggests the photo could have been digitally altered.

The Islamist forces fighting across the region are known for their advanced and technical digital propaganda campaigns.

The video, featuring a different vehicle firing from exactly the same position, raises the possibility Mr Oberholtzer’s vehicle may have been photoshopped into a video frame.

Superimposing a better vehicle and gun into a still frame from the original video would be significantly easier than trying to alter the video itself.

This could be why the video features an older model car and weapon, but the photo features Mr Oberholtzer’s later-model Toyota.

Read more: Daily Mail