20 years of the rebellion of Marvin Heemeyer, the bulldozer man (21 photos)

20 years ago, an American got angry with the authorities and bulldozed half of the city. Why is he considered a hero for this?





Marvin Heemeyer (October 28, 1951 – June 4, 2004)

On June 4, 2004, in the American town of Granby, there was a personal revolt of an ordinary American - 52-year-old welder Marvin Heemeyer (October 28, 1951 - June 4, 2004), whom some call for this “the last American hero.”

But first things first. Marvin was the owner of an auto repair shop. This was one of those “little masters” glorified by American propaganda as “the masters of their own fortune” in Free America. A veteran of the Vietnam War, where he fought for these values. He knew nothing about the laws of capitalism, which were described long ago by Marxism: that large predators sooner or later devour small businesses, and he is doomed in this confrontation. But Marvin had a chance to experience the effect of these laws in practice... Next to his company was the Mountain Park cement plant, which at some point began to expand. He forced all of Marvin's neighbors to sell their land for a small fee, but Marvin did not want to part with his "sacred and inviolable private property." Then the plant began to strangle the stubborn man. Strictly according to the laws of bourgeois society, Marvin’s water supply, light supply, sewage system were cut off, and all entrances to his auto repair shop were closed.

Marvin decided to build another road, and even bought a decommissioned Komatsu D355A-3 bulldozer for this purpose, but the authorities refused him permission to build a new road. Feeling the “blood of the victim,” other bourgeois predators immediately attacked Marvin: the bank wanted to take away the house with a mortgage loan, the state fined him for the lack of sewerage (although Marvin simply physically could not lay it on someone else’s property). Heemeyer went to court against the plant, but lost the battle. Anyone else in his place would have given up. But he decided to fight, or at least take revenge. He built an armored bulldozer and brutally defeated his competitors. Literally destroyed...



Armored bulldozer - killdozer - Marvin Heemeyer





For several months he locked himself in his workshop. All this time, he turned his Komatsu D355A-3 bulldozer into a weapon of retaliation. She covered it with 12 mm steel sheets, laid with a centimeter layer of cement. Now, under this multi-layered armor, police bullets and even grenade explosions were nothing to him. He equipped the car with television cameras that displayed images on monitors inside the cabin. I stocked up on food, water, a gas mask and weapons (Barrett M82 rifle, Ruger AC556 carbine, Magnum revolver with cartridges). Finally, he lowered the armored box onto the chassis with a homemade crane, locking himself inside. “By lowering the box, Heemeyer understood that after this he would no longer be able to get out of the car,” police experts said.

And so on June 4, 2004 at 14:30 Marvin’s armored miracle chariot left the garage. He made a list of his goals in advance. To begin with, he drove through the territory of the plant, carefully demolishing the plant management building, production workshops and in general everything, everything, everything down to the last barn.

Then he moved around the town. He demolished the building of the bank, which tried to put pressure on him through early repayment of the mortgage loan. He destroyed the buildings of the gas company, which refused to refill his kitchen gas cylinders after a fine, the city hall, the offices of the city council, the fire department, a warehouse, and several residential buildings that belonged to the mayor of the city. He tore down the local newspaper office and public library. He removed the facades from the houses of city council members. Marvin did not touch the houses of other residents of the town.

In total, he demolished 13 administrative buildings of his small town. After him they acquired this look:



This is what the city hall began to look like when it refused Marvin permission to pave the road to his workshop after his visit on June 4, 2004:



Parking near City Hall:





Svoboda Bank, which wished, when Marvin’s difficulties began, to take away his mortgaged apartment:



The office of the local newspaper "Sky-High", which opposed Marvin, after his visit:



Marvin's competitors, responsible for his misfortunes - Casey and Rhonda Farrell, owners of Gambles of Grand County - hug after his visit near the ruins of their store:



Other traces of Marvin's visit that day:





This is his “killdozer” from different angles:





In this photo, Grand County (Colorado, where it all happened) Sheriff Rodney Johnson looks into the cockpit of an armored bulldozer driven by Marvin Heemeyer. The photo shows video monitors that were connected to cameras installed outside the cabin: this is how Marvin viewed from inside the armored vehicle:



At the same time, Marvin, in order to scare off the police, shot into the air from rifles and barrels through embrasures cut into the armor, but aimed over their heads - not a single person died from his actions. All attempts to stop the impenetrable bulldozer were in vain, even when a grenade was thrown into its exhaust pipe - it turned out that the prudent Marvin had welded a grate there in advance. Three explosions and more than 200 bullets fired at the armored bulldozer caused virtually no harm to it. The governor of Colorado remarked of Marvin's actions: "The city looks as if a tornado had gone through it." The police had to evacuate 1.5 thousand residents and block all roads, including the federal highway, which especially shocked everyone.

The bulldozer stopped only when the ricochet hit the radiator. But he had already accomplished what he had planned... When the police cut the armor with an autogen gun, they found Marvin dead. He was not going to surrender to them alive, and saved the last bullet for himself.

Of course, not every bankrupt small owner can take revenge on competitors in this way, but everyone secretly or openly dreams of it. Therefore, Marvin became a hero in their eyes, he is called “the last hero of America.” In his honor, they produce T-shirts, patches, toys, posters, cups... Here are just some of the iconic items in honor of Marvin:













This is the story with a sad ending. Marvin took revenge on his enemies: the plant was never able to recover and sold its territory along with the ruins. But the order he fought against remained, of course, unchanged. Therefore, to answer the question: is this the way to fight? - you can only answer: of course not!