Jesse Jackson's Rented SUV Stolen, Stripped as He Promoted Green Jobs in Detroit

(Sept. 3) -- When the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a rally for "green jobs" in Detroit, he arrived in the Motor City in a massive Cadillac SUV. But his exit from the Motor City was a lot more environmentally friendly -- thanks to some car thieves.

The robbers stole the civil rights activist's rented 2009 Escalade SUV on Monday. He was in Detroit for Saturday's Jobs, Justice and Peace Rally in downtown Detroit.

"We were traveling for Jobs, Justice and Peace and we came [outside the hotel] next morning and it was gone," Jackson told AOL News today in a phone interview. "It was obvious that it was stolen."

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr. participates in a

Bill Pugliano, Getty Images

The Rev. Jesse Jackson at the Rebuild America: Jobs, Justice and Peace march last month in Detroit.

Police found the car later that day, stripped of its wheels but otherwise intact, WXYZ reported.

Jackson, who led the march along with United Auto Workers President Bob King, said there was nothing contradictory about renting an SUV and promoting green jobs.

"We were promoting a car manufacturer and representing the American worker, whatever car they chose," Jackson said. "My wife has a Smart Car, but for the purposes that we were traveling, the car was -- it fit the bill."

One Detroit columnist disagreed. "Add Jesse to the Al Gore-Tom Friedman-Barack Obama School of Environmental Hypocrisy," Detroit News columnist Henry Payne wrote. "While preaching to Americans that they need to cram their families into hybrid Priuses to go shopping for compact fluorescent light bulbs to save the planet, they themselves continue to live large."

Payne noted that Jackson wrote a column for CNN.com last month promoting energy independence. "If our country gets serious about energy savings and independence from oil, we could rebuild domestically and power the U.S. economy with American jobs," Jackson wrote Aug. 16 along with Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers.

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It's not the first time a high-profile person has had his car stolen in the Motor City in recent days. A GMC Yukon Denali from Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's security detail was stolen and stripped of its rims last week.

Bing condemned the robberies. "It is our hope the community will continue to support the administration's effort to communicate that any activity compromising the quality of life in Detroit is intolerable," the mayor said in a written statement to WXYZ.

Jackson said he rented a sedan, not an SUV, to drive for the rest of his trip to Detroit. He couldn't remember the make.