In America, a man demolished a cement plant with a car. me vengeance

Marvin Heemeyer, a 52-year-old welder, repaired car mufflers. His workshop was closely adjacent to the Mountain Park cement plant, which in 2003 decided to expand, for which it began buying up residents' land.

Heemeyer refused to sell his land to Mountain Park. Since all the land around the workshop already belonged to the plant, pressure was put on it, blocking communications and the entrance to the house. In order to pave another road, Heemeyer bought a used D355A-3.

The city administration did not give permission for the construction of a new road. Then Heemeyer sued Mountain Park, but the court decision was also not in his favor. Since all the adjacent land was acquired by the plant, constant checks began to be carried out in the workshop: tax, fire inspection, sanitary and epidemiological supervision. The latter issued a fine of $ 2,500 for "a tank that does not meet sanitary standards." Marvin didn't have access to a sewer because the land that the ditch was to be dug also belonged to the plant. At the time when the welder left for the funeral of his father, they turned off the light, water and sealed the workshop. After everything that happened, he closed himself in the workshop for several months.

On June 4, 2004, at 2:30 pm, Heemeyer left his workshop on a steel-armored bulldozer.

It took Heemeyer about two months to create the Armored Bulldozer, according to some reports, and about a year and a half, according to others. was sheathed with twelve-millimeter steel sheets, laid with a centimeter layer of cement. The machine was equipped with television cameras with image output to monitors inside the cabin. The cameras had a lens cleaning system in case they were blinded by dust and debris. Himeyeru took with him food, water, ammunition (two Ruger 223 rifles and one Remington 306 with cartridges) and a gas mask.

With the help of remote control, the welder lowered the armor box onto the chassis. To lower this shell onto the cab of a bulldozer, Heemeyer used a makeshift crane. "Lowering it, Heemeyer knew that after that he would not get out of the car," police experts said. A list of targets for destruction was drawn up in advance, according to which Heemeyer first drove through the territory of the plant, demolishing the plant administration building, production shops and all other buildings. Then he removed the facades from the houses of the members of the city council, destroyed the bank building, the buildings of the Ixel Energy gas company, which refused to fill his kitchen gas cylinders after a fine, the building of the city hall, the office of the city council, the fire department, the warehouse, several residential buildings belonging to the mayor of the city , the editorial office of the local newspaper and the public library.

Initially, the local sheriff with assistants tried to stop the bulldozer, then the police. The local SWAT team was alerted. Then forest rangers. In total, about 40 people were involved. SWAT used grenades, rangers had assault rifles. One of the SWAT sergeants jumped from the roof onto the hood of the bulldozer and tried to throw a stun grenade into the exhaust pipe, but Heemeyer, as it turned out, welded a grate there, so the bulldozer only lost the pipe.

Himayer actively fired back through the embrasures cut in the armor, but at the same time there were no casualties - the shots were fired significantly higher than the heads. The bulldozer took more than 200 hits from everything from service revolvers to M-16s and grenades. They tried to stop him hefty. "Komatsu D355A" without much difficulty shoved the scraper backwards into the front of the store and left it there. A car full of explosives on the path of Himayer also did not give the desired result. However, the bulldozer had a broken radiator, however, as mining experience shows, such bulldozers do not immediately pay attention even to a complete failure of the cooling system.

At 3:50 pm, Heemeyer began to destroy the Gambles wholesale store. The bulldozer was covered with debris from the roof, it got stuck and stalled. When the police blew a hole in the bulldozer's armor with an autogen, it turned out that Heemeyer had committed suicide about six hours earlier.

As a result, the city was damaged by $5,000,000, the plant - by $2,000,000. As a result of losses, the plant sold its territory.

Some wanted to put the bulldozer on a pedestal and make it a landmark, but most insisted on melting it down. Then, during the investigation, it turned out that “Heemeyer’s creation was so reliable that it could withstand not only a grenade explosion, but also a not very powerful artillery shell: it was completely covered with armored plates, each of which consisted of two half-inch sheets (in total about 13 mm) steel, fastened together with a cement pad.

This act was admired by many people in the US and around the world. Marvin Heemeyer began to be called "the last American hero." At the same time, it is worth noting that many residents of the city were deprived of work. Now this case is assessed as a spontaneous anti-globalist action. For residents of the town, this case causes extremely mixed emotions.

Marvin Heemeyer was a welder who owned a muffler repair shop in Granby. And Marvin had no luck with the neighbors. Cement plant Mountain Park began to expand and actively buy land residents. The owners of the plant made a preliminary agreement with Heemeyer, but at the last moment he raised the price: from $250,000, first to $375,000, and then to a million. Obviously, he did not want to sell anything, but wanted to continue patching mufflers.

At some point, the owners of the plant began to sue Heemeyer, trying to explain to justice that the plant brings goodness, justice and jobs to the city, and Heemeyer, who at 52 had neither a wife nor children, is not particularly needed by anyone. Then the plant bought up all the land around Marvin's property, and now no one could bring him a silencer for repairs. The plant cut off all communications for him, including sewerage, and the city authorities quite rightly fined the biryuk for unsanitary conditions - he could not lay a pipe on a foreign land.

Heemeyer wrestled listlessly for two years. His hour came on June 4, 2004. On this day, an armored bulldozer drove out into the street.

Heemeyer was a real welder and a born engineer - well, or the plant management did not think to cut his Internet cable. He took an ordinary bulldozer and welded an armored box for it. He calculated the armor with a margin. Each of its sheets consisted of two plates of half-inch (12.7 mm) steel, between which there was a cement pad. There were only four holes in his "tank" - two loopholes in front and two in the back. Already in the bulldozer, Heemeyer, using a makeshift remote-controlled crane, lowered the armor box onto the bulldozer - he did not expect to get out of it. He had two rifles with him - one huge, caliber .50 (12.7 mm), the second - a hunting "small", and a revolver of 357 caliber. He carefully prepared: for the review he had video cameras and monitors, and compressors were connected to the video cameras to clean them of dust.

Then everything was very scary. The bulldozer was moving slowly, but it was impossible to stop it. He smashed the factory and went to the city, swept through the town hall, the bank, the office of the local newspaper that campaigned against him, the house of the judge (the judge himself had already died, but his widow lived in the house), smashed other buildings, thirteen in total.

Why do we think that 52-year-old redneck welder Marvin Heemeyer is the heir of 35-year-old tramp and madman John Rambo? They were both driven by small-town dwellers who valued the common good over individual rights. They both went crazy and reacted in ways they probably shouldn't have. They both did everything not to kill anyone: all the deaths in the movie "First Blood" are accidental, and Heemeyer did not even scratch anyone at all: he continuously fired his artillery, but only over their heads to scare off the cops. Both of them could not cope with the sheriff and his deputies, and the National Guard had to be called.

And as in the case of Rambo, no one could stop Himeyer. The bulldozer got stuck when Heemeyer tried to demolish the supermarket, but they couldn't get Marvin out. He fired for a while, then stopped. Then the police brought an autogen and opened the bulldozer in which Marvin Heemeyer was dead: he shot himself.

Spontaneous anarchists of all stripes immediately demanded that a monument be erected to him in his homeland - an armored bulldozer would fit perfectly into this role. Neither the authorities nor the locals, of course, even considered this option - the bulldozer, along with the armor, was handed over for scrap, to several different reception points and with all precautions so that the scraps of the vengeance tank would not be stolen for souvenirs.

The locals refused to regard Rambo-Heemeyer as a hero. Firstly, not everyone believed that he really did everything in order not to hurt anyone. There were people in the buildings that he demolished, and only the slow speed of the bulldozer and the prompt actions of the sheriff - for example, the timely evacuation of the population - made it possible to avoid human casualties. In the library of the town hall, which Heemeyer destroyed, there were classes for children. The vigilante shot the National Guardsmen and the owner of a cement plant who was trying to stop a bulldozer. In addition, he tried to blow up liquefied gas cylinders with shots, if he succeeded, the policemen and residents of the surrounding houses would have died.

The hero in this situation was deputy sheriff Glen Trainer, who at some point jumped on a bulldozer and tried to find some hole to shoot him and stop the monster. He, in particular, shot at the exhaust pipe brought to the roof and even threw a grenade into it. The grenade was stun and did not cause any harm to the bulldozer.

Heemeyer did not kill anyone, but caused damage, according to various estimates, for 4-5 million dollars. The plant then closed and sold the land bought with such difficulty. The town raised money for restoration by subscription, but without new jobs, taxes and gifts from the proposed city-forming enterprise. No one even discussed the idea of ​​making the city a tourist pilgrimage site for anarchists and putting a Hemeyer bulldozer on the main square.

But, on the other hand, John James Rambo was hardly very popular in the city of Hope, and certainly no one would use the ruins of a sports and weapons store blown up by a deranged Green Beret as a local attraction.

The tragic story of Marvin Heemeyer, a fifty-two-year-old welder who lived in the town of Granby for only a few years, excited not only the United States, but the whole world. Now this act is considered as a spontaneous action of an anti-globalist. Marvin Heemeyer is America's last hero. This is how journalists dubbed him for his intransigence and uncompromising struggle against the corrupt state system.

Biography

Marvin Himayer was born on October 28, 1951. He graduated from school in 1968. A year later he went to serve in the US Air Force. On March 17, 1971, he was sent to fight in Vietnam. There he served at the air base as a senior aviator. After 4 years, he was demobilized, and he returned to his homeland, Marvin's acquaintances describe his character in different ways. Some speak of him as a good and friendly guy, while others consider him unreliable, too suspicious and dangerous.

Advocate of the legalization of gambling

Despite the fact that Heemeyer did not live long in the town of Granby, he managed to make both friends and enemies. His character was very controversial. Take, for example, the case when he, as the owner of a muffler repair shop, once threatened his client to kill her husband if she did not pay him for repairs.

His acquaintances said that if you have a friend, then it’s better not to find Marvin, but if he decides that you are an enemy, then it’s hard to imagine a more dangerous opponent than him.

Conflict situation

The life story of Marvin Heemeyer in the town of Granby at first did not portend anything tragic. Until the cement factory, near the walls of which his workshop was located, did not decide to expand. The fact is that not far from Gramby was the winter resort of Aspen. Millionaires like to come there, and each of them wants to have their own home there. The fashion for winter cottages provoked a construction boom, as a result of which the demand for cement increased.

In 2001, city authorities and a special commission approved the construction of a new cement plant for Mountain Park. After that, the owners of the enterprise began to buy up nearby land plots. Their methods, to put it mildly, were not always legal.

The cement company paid an average of 50 thousand dollars for each of the plots, but Heemeyer refused to sell his land at that price and asked for 270 thousand. When the buyers agreed, he raised the price to 500 thousand, and then to 1 million. Here are the owners decided to take control of it.

Last straw

This is where the scandalous story of Marvin Heemeyer with the owners of the cement plant begins. According to the territorial plan approved by the city authorities, the enterprise cut off the only road leading to the welder's workshop. Marvin filed an application to the court to appeal this decision, but lost. He wanted to get permission to install a sewer, but the owner of the land refused him.

Seeing such a disrespectful attitude on the part of the official authorities, he buys himself a decommissioned killdozer. Marvin Heemeyer repaired the engine himself and decided to build another road to his workshop, bypassing the factory areas. But here, too, disappointment awaited him, since the city administration forbade doing this, and even fined him for the lack of sewerage for 2.5 thousand dollars. He paid the fine, and attached a note to the receipt with only one word - "cowards."

It seems that the story of Marvin Heemeyer would not have been so sad if the city authorities had not added the last drop to his patience. When his father died, he went to the funeral, and when he returned a few days later, he found that his water and electricity had been turned off and the workshop had been sealed. In addition, the local bank threatened to take away his house, as allegedly an error was found in the execution of a mortgage loan.

Preparing for war

As already mentioned, in the spring of 2004, Marvin's father died. His younger brother's wife later recalled that Heemeyer behaved a little strangely at the funeral, as if he had come to say goodbye to all his relatives. In addition, it seemed to her that he did not want to leave at all.

Marvin began work on improving his bulldozer almost as soon as he was denied permission to build a driveway to his workshop. He drove his tractor, which he planned to use to pave the road, into the garage and proceeded to modify it.

Modernization

First Heemeyer decided to strengthen the cabin with the engine. To do this, he installed home-made composite armor, which he made from sheets of steel and cement poured between them. After that, he equipped several loopholes around the control center itself, and also installed one video camera in front and behind, and then displayed their image on the monitors in the cockpit.

Heemeyer Marvin John prepared very carefully, so he transferred a small supply of food and several bottles of water to the tractor cab. He did not forget about the air tank, gas mask and weapons. He also had a revolver.

As expected, he spent from three months to one and a half years upgrading his bulldozer. Surely Heemeyer was struck by the fact that none of the casual visitors to the workshop were surprised or alarmed to see such a powerful armored vehicle.

Before Marvin Heemeyer's war began, he specially recorded his message on several cassettes. On them he left an explanation of his act.

On Friday, June 4, he sent all the recorded tapes to his younger brother, after which he closed himself in the cab of a bulldozer. Using a makeshift remote-controlled crane, the man lowered the armored box onto the chassis. As mentioned earlier, he equipped his tractor with several video cameras and monitors. In addition, in case they were contaminated with debris or dust, the craftsman brought air compressors to them.

At 3 o'clock that afternoon, Marvin Heemeyer's bulldozer easily broke through the wall of the workshop and crashed hard into the Mountain Park concrete plant building. After these actions, the 911 service was already called non-stop.

Cody Dochev, who witnessed how a huge and unusual armored tractor literally destroys the plant, wanted to intervene. He tried to climb into the cab of the bulldozer, but they began to fire at him from embrasures.

After about 10-15 minutes, the buildings of the enterprise were completely destroyed, and several cars parked on its territory were destroyed. After that, Heemeyer's car drove onto the highway and rattled towards the city.

At this time, an unusual sight could be observed on the road: a whole line lined up behind a slowly moving bulldozer, all with sirens on. One of the police cars tried to block his way, but was crushed like a tin can. Glen Traynor, a sheriff's deputy, managed to climb onto the cab of a riding bulldozer and fire 37 bullets from his service pistol, but it was impossible to penetrate such armor.

City of Granby

I must say that Heemeyer had a whole list of objects that he planned to destroy. When his car reached the final destination, he was already met by the city police. Of course, against such a hulk, the employees did not have any weapons. Since it was impossible to penetrate such armor with ordinary cartridges, special forces were called in to help, who tried to undermine the bulldozer. But all attempts to destroy the car and the one who sits in it failed.

All that the police could do in this situation was to warn the locals of the danger that threatened them. Meanwhile, this tragic event was broadcast live on all news channels from a helicopter flying over the city.

Despite the fact that it was quite difficult for Marvin to control such a bulky and clumsy vehicle, he managed to find and destroy his intended targets. And they were the buildings of the city hall and the editorial office of the local newspaper, the house of the former mayor and other buildings. On the way to their targets, the bulldozer destroyed cars left on the road. Although the destruction was significant, no one was seriously injured.

Death of the last hero

Soon the police got hold of an industrial bulldozer, but the armored Komatsu easily knocked it over to the side of the road. Within an hour, Marvin Heemeyer tore down 13 buildings and drove to the next intended target, Gamble's Equipment. The significant weight of the armor and the damage caused by small arms began to gradually affect the maneuverability of the tractor. In addition, the radiator was punctured and coolant was leaking out of it. As a result, the car began to lose power and, breaking through the wall of the supermarket, fell into a small basement under its own gravity. was no longer able to pull the tractor out of the trap.

After that, a special forces group surrounded the vehicle, and someone reported that they heard a lone gunshot from the cab. The car stalled forever, finally ending its destructive march, which lasted only 2 hours and 7 minutes, causing $7 million in damage. Thus ended the story of Marvin John Himeer.

Effects

To get inside the cabin, the special forces used explosives. It was possible to crack the armor only by applying it. After his 12-hour work, the body of Marvin Heemeyer was removed to the surface. As the police established, he shot himself with his .375 pistol. Later, it was repeatedly emphasized in all media that Heemeyer Marvin John was the only victim. It seems that journalists tried to cite this fact as proof of his rare ingenuity and heroism.

But, as you know, there were people in the buildings just before the destruction. In addition, he fired at fuel containers, and this could lead to large explosions and numerous casualties. Heemeyer also made an attempt to fill up a wall in one of the buildings, near which two policemen were standing.

After the lifeless body was pulled out of the cockpit, several rifles and a list of addresses of businesses and buildings with the names of their owners were found in it. By the way, all the destroyed property was insured and then restored as soon as possible. But the cement plant never recovered from the destruction, the owners felt that they needed to get rid of it, and sold it.

Marvin Heemeyer is America's last hero. So the journalists dubbed him. Today in the US there is a group of people who literally idolize him for his courage, intransigence and uncompromising struggle against the corrupt state system.

This story has a sad ending. The inconspicuous town of Granby, Colorado, became known as the last resting place of the last American hero - Marvin Heemeyer (October 28, 1951 - June 4, 2004).

In general, 52-year-old welder Marvin Heemeyer lived in Granby, repaired car mufflers and did not touch anyone. Until the local cement plant Mountain Park decided to expand. Marvin's small workshop was closely adjacent to the cement plant, which began to force Heemeyer and other neighbors to sell their land.

People are small and weak, and corporations are big and strong, so soon, in an unequal struggle, all the neighbors of the plant surrendered and ceded their land plots to him. But not Heemeyer. He officially bought his plot for a workshop and a shop at an auction a few years ago for pretty decent money. To do this, he sold his share in a large car service in Denver and therefore was not going to part with his legal property. The manufacturers were never able to acquire his land, although they tried to do it by hook or by crook.

Desperate to resolve the issue amicably, Marvin began to persecute. Since all the land around Heemeyer's workshop already belonged to the plant, all communications and the entrance to the house were blocked. Marvin decided to build another road, and even bought a decommissioned Komatsu D355A-3 bulldozer for this, restoring the engine on it in his workshop.

The city administration refused permission to build a new road. The bank found fault with the registration of a mortgage loan and threatened to take away the house. Heemeyer tried to restore justice by suing Mountain Park, but lost the lawsuit.

He was hit several times by the Retail Tax, Fire and Sanitation Inspectorate, who issued a $2,500 fine for having "an unsanitary tank" in his workshop. Marvin could not connect to the sewer to drain the sewage from the tank, since the land on which the ditch was to be dug also belonged to the plant, and the plant was not going to give him such permission. Marvin paid the fine by attaching a short note to the receipt when sending it: "Panties."

Some time later, his father died (March 31, 2004). Marvin went to bury him, and while he was away, the electricity and water were turned off for him and the workshop was sealed. After that, he closed himself in the workshop for several months and practically no one saw him.

All this time, Heemeyer, disillusioned with the vaunted American justice, was completing the creation of a weapon of retaliation - an armored bulldozer. He sheathed his Komatsu with 12 mm steel sheets laid with a centimeter layer of cement. Equipped with TV cameras with image output to monitors inside the cabin. Equipped cameras with lens cleaning systems in case they were blinded by dust and debris. Prudent Marvin stocked up on food, water, a gas mask and weapons (Barrett M82 rifle, Ruger AC556 carbine, Magnum revolver with cartridges). With the help of a remote control, he lowered an armor box onto the chassis, locking himself inside. In order to lower this armor shell onto the bulldozer's cab, Heemeyer used a makeshift crane. “Lowering it, Heemeyer knew that after that he would not get out of the car,” police experts said.

Marvin made a list of targets in advance - objects belonging to those whom he considered it necessary to take revenge. To begin with, he drove through the territory of the plant, carefully demolishing the plant management building, production workshops and, in general, everything down to the last barn. Then he moved through the town. He removed the facades from the houses of the members of the city council. Demolished the building of the bank, which tried to put pressure on him through early repayment of a mortgage loan. He destroyed the buildings of the gas company, which refused to fill his kitchen gas cylinders after a fine, the city hall building, the offices of the city council, the fire department, the warehouse, several residential buildings owned by the mayor of the city. He tore down the local newspaper and the public library. In short, Marvin demolished everything that had anything to do with local authorities, including their private homes. Moreover, he showed good awareness of who owns what. Marvin did not touch the houses of other residents of the town.

Of course, they tried to stop Himeyer. First, the local sheriff with deputies. Then the local police, using revolvers and shotguns. The local SWAT team was alerted. Then forest rangers. SWAT had grenades, rangers had assault rifles. A particularly dashing sergeant jumped from the roof onto the hood of a bulldozer and tried to throw a stun grenade into the exhaust pipe, but the son of a bitch Heemeyer, as it turned out, welded a grate into it, so the only thing that the bulldozer lost as a result was the pipes themselves. The driver's tear gases were not taken - the monitors were visible even in a gas mask. All attempts to stop the bulldozer were in vain.

Heemeyer actively fired back through loopholes cut in the armor. Not a single person was hurt by his fire, because he shot significantly higher than their heads, in other words, into the sky, because he did not want innocent victims, but simply wanted to scare the security forces so that they would not particularly interfere with him. He succeeded: the police did not dare to approach him anymore. In total, counting the rangers, by that time there were about 40 people. The bulldozer took more than 200 hits from everything that the policemen had - from service revolvers to M-16s and grenades. They also tried to stop him with a hefty scraper (digger). However, Komatsu crammed the scraper into the front of the store with little difficulty. The car stuffed with explosives on the path of Heemeyer also did not give the desired result. The only achievement of the police in an attempt to counteract Marvin was the bulldozer's radiator pierced by a ricochet - however, as the experience of quarry work shows, such bulldozers do not immediately pay attention even to a complete failure of the cooling system.

All that the police could actually do in the end was to evacuate 1.5 thousand residents and block all roads, including federal highway No. 40 leading to Denver (the blocking of the federal highway was especially shocking for everyone).

To the heap, Marvin decided to tear down the small wholesale store "Gambles". The bulldozer ironed the ruins of the department store and stopped. In the sudden silence, the steam escaping from the broken radiator whistled furiously. The bulldozer was covered with debris from the roof, it got stuck and stalled.

At first, the police were afraid for a long time to approach Heemeyer's bulldozer, and then they made a hole in the armor for a long time, trying to get the welder out of his caterpillar fortress (three plastic charges did not give the desired effect). They feared the last trap that Marvin might lay for them. When the armor was finally pierced by the autogen, Marvin was already dead. Marvin kept the last cartridge for himself. He was not going to give himself alive into the clutches of his enemies.

The aftermath of Marvin's war was aptly described by the governor of Colorado: "the city looks as if a tornado had swept through it." The city actually suffered $5,000,000 worth of damage, and $2,000,000 worth of damage to the plant. Given the small scale of the town, this meant almost complete destruction. The plant never recovered from the attack and sold the area along with the ruins.

Then the investigation began. It turned out that Heemeyer's creation was so reliable that it could withstand not only a grenade explosion, but also an artillery shell. At first they wanted to put the Bulldozer on a pedestal and make it a local landmark, but the majority insisted on melting it down.

In people, this case causes extremely mixed emotions. On the one hand, antisocial actions aimed at destruction usually cause condemnation. But on the other hand, Heemeyer's act was approved by many residents of the United States and around the world. Marvin Heemeyer began to be called "the last American hero" who challenged the social injustice that drowns small people in their unequal struggle with big corporations and the state machine. Many consider the act of Marvin Heemeyer to be admirable, because he rightly fought for his rights: in his small war, only the property of his offenders suffered and not a single person died.

While fans and opponents of Leviathan are arguing about whether the author has denigrated Russia with his picture, the fact that the story that happened in the United States served as the reason for the creation of the film is in the shade.

“An acquaintance told me a story about a man who lived in Colorado and who rebelled against a powerful company. This man first destroyed the buildings, and then committed suicide. This story could have happened anywhere. We moved it to Russia, ”said during a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival Andrey Zvyagintsev.

The story that formed the basis of the idea of ​​the Leviathan film shocked America at the time and turned the protagonist into a real anti-globalization icon.

Marvin John Heemeyer for the time being could be considered almost an exemplary American. The Vietnam War veteran, who served in the US Air Force as an airfield technician, retired from the army and ran a successful business and owned a stake in a large auto repair shop in Denver, Colorado.

Mr. Heemeyer's personal life did not work out. As his friends said, in his youth he experienced an unhappy love and did not make new attempts to start a family.

Land conflict

In the early 1990s, Heemeyer, then in his early 40s, sold his interest in the auto repair shop and purchased 2 acres of land in the town of Granby. After moving to a town located 140 kilometers from Denver, Marvin Heemeyer opened a workshop with a store on his land.

For several years, Heemeyer faithfully repaired and sold car mufflers. The man had an undoubted talent as an engineer - as a hobby, he assembled snowmobiles, on which he rode newlyweds at weddings in winter.

The population of the town of Granby by the end of the 1990s did not exceed 2,200 people, and the Mountain Park cement plant was a kind of "city-forming enterprise" in it.

Docheff family, which owned the plant, decided to build a new production line, received the approval of the city administration and began to buy the necessary land plots from private owners. Among those whose land Mountain Park needed was Marvin Heemeyer.

As the owners of the plant later claimed, Heemeyer was offered $250,000 for the site - more than a decent price, considering that he bought the land for $42,000. Heemeyer, again, according to the Docheff family, at first agreed, but then demanded 375 thousand, and then completely brought the amount of compensation to a million.

It is impossible to find out the version of Heemeyer himself today, but his friends assured that the owners of the plant were telling lies and did not offer any large sums to Heemeyer, and he himself did not demand them. On the contrary, they assure that the greedy Docheff family decided to take over the site for almost a nominal fee.

Marvin John Heemeyer. Frame youtube.com

How they "press" in America

What can be said with confidence is that the parties have not reached a compromise. And Heemeyer got into trouble.

For the authorities of the city, whose well-being rested solely on the generosity of the owners of the cement plant, the stubborn owner of the workshop became a bone in the throat.

And against Heemeyer they turned on “pressure”. Since all the lands around already belonged to the owners of the plant, the obstinate was blocked from entering his own territory. Heemeyer did not despair and decided to build another road to his site, for which he purchased a decommissioned Komatsu D355A-3 heavy bulldozer. However, the Granby administration imposed a ban on the construction of the road.

Heemeyer challenged in court the permission to build a new plant line, but lost the suit. At the bank, he was presented with claims for improper registration of a mortgage loan and threatened to take away the house. This was followed by numerous claims from firefighters, tax authorities, sanitary inspection - city services wrote Himeyer a fine after a fine.

The longer the confrontation lasted, the more actively they pressed on Heemeyer. According to the owners of the plant and local authorities, the man had two options - either go broke or sell the land.

Frame youtube.com

Engineer's Revenge

Heemeyer found a third. The fact that it will not be possible to defeat the system, he understood long ago. Investigators later found his diaries, which contained the following phrase: “I wonder how I haven't been caught yet. The project took up part of my time for over a year and a half."

A talented engineer hatched a plan for revenge, for which he undertook a complete re-equipment of a bulldozer, originally purchased for peaceful purposes. Heemeyer sheathed it with twelve millimeter steel sheets, laid with a centimeter layer of cement. Equipped with TV cameras with image output to monitors inside the cabin. Equipped cameras with lens cleaning systems. Even a refrigerator with a small supply of food, water and beer was placed inside the cabin.

On June 4, 2004, 52-year-old Marvin Heemeyer decided that the hour of redemption had come. Armed with a rifle, a carbine, a revolver, grabbing a gas mask, the man climbed into the cockpit of his armored monster. Then, with the help of a remote control, he lowered another armor box onto the chassis, finally locking himself inside.

At 14:30 local time, the device, which was later given the name "Killdozer", drove into the streets of Granby.

Heemeyer did not act in a fit of anger, but according to a well-developed plan. His list included the homes and offices of everyone who managed to poison his life during the conflict with Mountain Park.

Having entered the territory of the hated plant, he demolished the plant management building, and then the production premises. Then the facades of the houses of the members of the city council were demolished, the building of the very bank that threatened to take away the house from Heemeyer, the building of the local administration, the office of the local newspaper, the house of the widow of the former judge ... In short, the avenger went through his "Killdozer" through the homes and offices of absolutely everyone who was involved in his problems.

The local sheriff and his deputies fired at the "iron monster" with revolvers and shotguns, but, of course, they did not succeed. Failed to stop Himeyer and the special forces detachment. The Killdozer took 200 hits from various weapons, but never stopped.

In order to besiege the ardor of law enforcement officers, the avenger fired from his weapon through the loopholes left for this purpose, so the police preferred to retreat to a safe distance. Attempts to smoke Heemeyer with gas also failed - foreseeing this, the man used a gas mask.

In the end, the police evacuated the residents of the town and waited for the Killdozer to stop itself.

It happened at 4:30 pm. During the demolition of a small-scale wholesale store, the bulldozer was covered with debris from the roof, it got stuck and stalled.

Frame youtube.com

Consign to oblivion

The police did not dare approach the Killdozer for another two hours. Then, for several hours, law enforcement officers pierced the armor in order to get to the “tractor driver”. It only worked out the next morning.

Marvin Heemeyer was dead. After completing the raid on Granby, he committed suicide. The creator of the Killdozer was the only casualty of what the media called the "Marvin Heemeyer War" - no other people were hurt.

The total damage to the city was $5 million and the Mountain Park plant was $2 million.

The state governor, who arrived at the scene, said that the city looks like it was hit by a tornado.

They tried to forget about the "enemy of the state" in the United States as soon as possible. The central media of the country gave the story of Marvin Heemeyer a minimum of attention, without going into details of what happened. The city began to actively restore.

However, its population continues to decline, as in many other such small towns in America.

And "Marvin Heemeyer's War" is by far the only reason why Granby is still remembered in the rest of the world.