A Wichita man says he was humiliated after learning that a racial slur had been printed on the oil change sticker inside his truck following service at a local dealership, according to a KAKE News report by Lily O’Brien.
Larry Martin Jr. said he had assumed his truck was serviced normally when he picked it up from Rusty Eck Ford, only to later receive a call from the dealership telling him that an employee had allegedly placed derogatory language on his sticker and on stickers belonging to other customers.
When Martin checked, he found the N-word printed on the sticker inside his vehicle.
Martin Says The Sticker Changed How He Feels In His Own Truck
Martin showed O’Brien where the sticker sits inside the vehicle and said the experience has stayed with him every time he gets behind the wheel.
“This is my truck right here,” he said. “This is where I open it up. I get in my truck. I sit down. I start my truck, and there’s the sticker.”
He described the discovery as humiliating.
“It carries a lot of weight,” Martin said. “And every time I get in my truck, this is what I’m thinking.”
He added that the feeling does not simply disappear because the dealership acknowledged what happened.
“I feel belittled,” he said. “And I just want to know why.”
That may be the hardest part of the situation to fix. A replacement sticker is easy enough to print, but removing the memory attached to the original one is much more difficult.
Dealership Says Employee Was Fired
O’Brien reached out to Rusty Eck Ford multiple times for its response.
The dealership later released a statement saying it had learned of concerns involving inappropriate conduct and immediately opened an internal investigation.
According to the company, the employee involved was terminated based on information uncovered during that review.
Rusty Eck Ford said it does not tolerate “racial, hateful, discriminatory, or otherwise inappropriate conduct in the workplace.”
The company also said members of its leadership team met with the Martin family to listen to their concerns and better understand what had happened.
That meeting did not close the matter.
The dealership said the family brought forward additional questions and information that required further review, so the internal investigation remains open.
Company Says One Worker Does Not Reflect Its Values
Martin also shared a text that appeared to come from someone representing the dealership.
In that message, he was offered a replacement sticker and told that the actions of one person did not represent the company’s values.
Rusty Eck Ford said in its statement that it remains committed to maintaining a business environment where customers and employees are treated with dignity and respect.
The company also said it was limited in how much more it could publicly discuss because the matter involves confidential personnel issues.
Still, Martin made clear that the issue was not simply about getting a new sticker.
For him, the larger question is why someone working on his vehicle would use that language in the first place.
That distinction matters because the practical fix and the emotional impact are not the same thing.
Martin’s Daughter Says An Apology Is Not Enough
Martin’s daughter, Kelsey, also spoke with O’Brien after the family met with the dealership.
She said she still has serious questions about what happened and how the situation has been handled.
“No one deserves to be humiliated like this,” she said.
Kelsey added that an apology alone does not make up for what her father experienced.
“An apology just isn’t enough,” she said, “and it doesn’t suffice for the embarrassment that my father has experienced.”
Her comments reflect why the family appears to be looking for more than reassurance that one employee was fired.
They want a fuller explanation of how the sticker was created, why it happened and whether similar incidents involved other customers.
Dealership Says Investigation Is Still Ongoing
Rusty Eck Ford said its review has not ended.
The company stated that the Martins provided new information during their meeting and that leadership would continue looking into the matter before deciding whether additional action is necessary.
That ongoing investigation could become important because Martin said the dealership initially told him the employee had placed derogatory language on more than one customer’s sticker.
If that account is accurate, the issue may extend beyond a single bad interaction involving one truck.
For now, however, the dealership has publicly confirmed only that one employee was fired after its investigation uncovered enough information to warrant termination.
The company has not released further details about the worker.
Martin Says The Impact Has Not Gone Away
For Martin, the most lasting part of the experience appears to be psychological rather than financial.
He is still driving the same truck.
The sticker may be replaced, but he said the thought of what had been printed there comes back whenever he sits in the driver’s seat.
That is what makes his repeated description of feeling “belittled” so important.
The incident involved only a few printed characters, but Martin says those characters carried much more meaning than their physical size would suggest.
A routine oil change is supposed to be forgettable.
Instead, Martin said it became a reminder of being targeted with language he found deeply degrading.
Family Still Wants Answers
O’Brien’s report shows that Rusty Eck Ford has taken some action, including firing the employee and meeting with the family, while also keeping its investigation open.
But the Martins say they are still waiting for the kind of explanation that makes sense of how this happened at all.
Kelsey says her father deserves more than a simple apology.
Martin says he wants to understand why someone chose to put that word on his vehicle.
The dealership, meanwhile, says the conduct does not reflect its standards and that it will continue reviewing the family’s concerns.
What remains unresolved is whether the investigation will produce the answers Martin is looking for.
For him, that appears to matter just as much as the employee losing the job.
He did not simply discover offensive language on a piece of paper.
He found it inside his own truck after trusting a business with his vehicle, and he says that humiliation now follows him every time he gets back in.
A former park ranger and wildlife conservationist, Lisa’s passion for survival started with her deep connection to nature. Raised on a small farm in northern Wisconsin, she learned how to grow her own food, raise livestock, and live off the land. Lisa is our dedicated Second Amendment news writer and also focuses on homesteading, natural remedies, and survival strategies. Lisa aims to help others live more sustainably and prepare for the unexpected.
