A routine oil change turned into a deeply upsetting ordeal for a Black truck owner in Wichita, Kansas, after he discovered a racial slur printed directly onto his vehicle’s service sticker.
Larry Martin Jr. took his truck to Rusty Eck Ford in Wichita for a routine oil change in July. After paying for the service, Martin picked up his truck and drove away, apparently unaware that anything unusual had happened.
It wasn’t until weeks later that he learned what had been printed on his vehicle.
He couldn’t believe his own eyes
According to KAKE News, a representative from Rusty Eck Ford contacted Martin in early September after an internal audit reportedly revealed that a former employee had programmed a derogatory message into the dealership’s automated printing system, which means many other customers were targeted too. The dealership urged Martin to check the service sticker on his windshield.
When he did, Martin found the N-word printed at the bottom of the small plastic sticker, alongside the date and mileage information for his next scheduled service.
“I looked at it, and said, ‘This can’t be real,’” Martin recalled in an interview with local news outlets. “It felt humiliating. It carries a lot of weight, and every time I get in my truck, this is what I’m thinking. It doesn’t go away. I feel belittled.”
The incident quickly put Rusty Eck Ford under scrutiny, with questions being raised about how something so offensive could make it through the dealership’s systems without anyone noticing.
The dealership issued a statement saying it does “not tolerate racial, hateful, discriminatory, or otherwise inappropriate conduct in the workplace.” The company said it terminated the employee responsible and conducted an internal investigation. It also reportedly met with the Martin family behind closed doors.
But for Martin’s family, the explanation does not end the matter. The family maintains that they need to see concrete systemic changes that go beyond just boilerplate damage control.
Martin’s daughter, Kelsey Martin, challenged the dealership’s explanation on social media, questioning how an employee could use an official corporate system to print a racial slur on a customer’s vehicle without management catching it.
“This wasn’t just a careless mistake; it is a hateful act that happened right under their management’s nose,” Kelsey Martin stated, arguing that an apology from the dealership cannot simply erase what happened to her father.
The Wichita incident also comes amid other cases involving racial slurs being left on service documents belonging to Black customers.
The family want the solution to go beyond them
A similar lawsuit was filed against a Kunes Buick GMC dealership in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. In that case, a Black customer named Makayla Starks reportedly discovered a racial slur printed on her oil change sticker. The incident later led to a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress, with claims that employees attempted to cover up the evidence.
For the Martin family, the issue now goes beyond the firing of one employee. They want to see changes at the dealership that address how the incident happened in the first place, rather than allowing their personal experience to become the entire focus of the story.
Published: Sep 17, 2026 07:01 am