A man who packed a stolen car with fake explosives and fake law enforcement credentials was sentenced today to seven years in federal prison for carjacking, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.
Aaron Lee Oehlschlager, 55, pleaded guilty in June to carjacking and possession of a forged seal of an agency of the United States. He was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle.
According to plea papers, Mr. Oehlschlager admits he carjacked a woman at gunpoint outside a Dallas hotel around 5:00 p.m. on September 27, 2019. The defendant produced a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun with a fake silencer attached to it and demanded the victim’s car keys. The victim complied.
According to court documents, law enforcement located the vehicle, a Kia Soul owned by Hertz, in a parking garage in Grapevine six months later. The car was later towed to a Hertz maintenance lot near DFW Airport where it sat until June 2020, when a rental car employee entered the vehicle to clean it. Inside, he observed what appeared to be an improvised explosive device (IED).
DFW Airport police responded and evacuated the area. FBI Dallas Bomb Squad later discovered the bomb was inert.
A further search of the vehicle revealed a second inert IED, fake FBI credentials, a fake search warrant, a black backpack bearing the defendant’s son’s name, and various other items.
At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors stated that the carjacking appeared to be the first step in a larger plot by Mr. Oehlschlager that involved the use of fake explosive devices, masks, bolt cutters, handcuffs, zip-ties, stun guns, and tasers.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the DFW International Airport Police and the Dallas Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua D. Detzky and George Leal prosecuted the case.