Story highlights Mark Oberholtzer sues a Texas dealership for more than $1 million

In the lawsuit, he says the dealership should have removed company decals from his truck

The pickup truck later turned up in a photo tweet from Islamic militants

(CNN) All Mark Oberholtzer wanted to do was upgrade his ride. What he got instead was a world of trouble from half a world away.

The Texas City, Texas, plumbing company owner is suing a Ford dealership for more than $1 million in financial losses and damages to his company's reputation after a pickup truck he once owned ended up with Islamic militants fighting in Syria's civil war

A photo of the truck, with his Mark-1 Plumbing decals still attached, went viral, leading to thousands of harassing phone calls.

"By the end of the day, Mark-1's office, Mark-1's business phone, and Mark's personal cell had received over 1,000 phone calls from around the nation," Oberholzer's lawyer wrote in the lawsuit, filed December 9 in Harris County, Texas. "These phone calls were in large part harassing and contained countless threats of violence, property harm, injury and even death."

Oberholtzer said this wouldn't have happened if the dealership had just removed the decals before the truck was resold.

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