(By Greg Rourke) – Today would have been the birthday of Marvin Heemeyer. It’s been said that you cannot fight city hall. That may be true, but Marvin found a loophole. He ran over city hall with a freakin’ armored bulldozer.
Marvin Heemeyer owned a muffler shop in Granby, Colorado. By most accounts he was a nice guy. But he ran into a few issues with neighbors and the city fathers that they were unable to resolve to Marvin’s satisfaction. He said he was willing to be reasonable until he was forced to be unreasonable. And he was more unreasonable than say, the folks who move next to the airport and then complain about the noise.
Marvin bought the property he shop was on from a government agency that liquidated assets of failed savings and loans. He bought it at a bargain price, and sold part of it to an outfit that eventually built a concrete plant, which Marvin didn’t know about. Unfortunately that parcel included the access to his shop. He bought a Komatsu D355A dozer to construct a new access road, but the city told him no dice. He appealed the zoning boards approval of the concrete plant, to no avail. It covered his property with dust, in addition to blocking his access. Meanwhile, the city decided Marvin had to hook up to the city sewer, and fined him for not doing so. They also started citing him for other violations such as junk cars on the property. Marvin was really getting his shorts in a bunch. He decided enough was enough.
Back to the Komatsu D355A dozer. It’s a big bastard, weighing in at 100,000 pounds, with a 400 horse diesel and a 14 foot wide blade. But that wasn’t enough for ol’ Marv. Nope, our hero armored the machine with sheets of steel with concrete filling between them. He steered the machine via video cameras and monitors in the cab. The cameras had 3 inch thick plexiglass over them, with compressed air nozzles to keep them clean. He had some rifles and gun ports, and at least one pistol in the cab. On the fateful June 4, 2004, Marvin got in the machine and dropped the armor over the cab. Marvin knew he wasn’t coming out. He drove through the wall of his shop and did what he felt he needed to do.
Marvin kept grudges against all those he felt did him wrong. First he drove through the office of the concrete plant neighbor. Then he destroyed City Hall, the local newspaper that editorialized against him, a hardware store he had a problem with, the the home of a former judge’s widow. One brave soul tried to stop the rampage with a big ass Cat scraper, but Marv just brushed it aside like they were lima beans next to a ribeye on my dinner plate. Small arms fire and even a grenade did nothing to stop Marvin’s mission. The governor of Colorado considered sending an Apache attack helicopter equipped with anti-tank missiles, but thought better of that idea, considering the missiles would cause plenty more damage to downtown Granby.
The rampage came to an end as Marvin was expressing his displeasure of the owner of a hardware store. The building had a basement, apparently unknown to Marvin. A track dropped in and the dozer got stuck. The radiator had previously been compromised and when the mighty Komatsu overheated Marv’s day was over. And so was his life, Marv put his .357 to his head and that was that.
Some say Marvin went out of his way to not hurt anyone. Law enforcement said the fact that no one was hurt or killed was more luck than anything, as he fired his rifles at propane tanks and power transformers. Authorities tried everything, including explosives to open the dozer, finally using oxyacetylene torches to remove Marvin’s body+. Marvin’s brother received audio tapes sent just before the rampage, explaining his motivations. Marvin felt he was on a mission from God, much like Jake and Elwood.
So there we have it. What say you…is Marvin a hero, an American badass, or just a random nut? All we know for sure is Granby Colorado f’d with Marvin Heemeyer until he f’d back. I’ll be raising a whiskey glass to ol’ Marv tonight.
Click the image to see a video of the madness that this thing wrought
Buying his property through a gov’t sale, not doing his “due diligence” ( read the def.) and then blaming the gov’t for his problems? At least no one but himself died.
Marvin’s problem was that he didn’t think big enough. A more effective way to ruin everything is by getting into politics, then allowing those who won’t contribute to vote themselves benefits. Eventually with greater and greater burdens on those who do work the whole country will fold or riot.
Go vote if you love this country. Old Marvin could have been great with his level of commitment. Granby officials may spout off about his outlaw activities, but they will always sleep with one eye open as they remember Marvin. Well done.
Thats the greatest story of revenge I’ve ever seen in my life. Kinda scary what was going through his head, but obviously his goal was to destroy the buildings, not the people. If he wanted to kill people, he would’ve been tossing some bombs out.
“Revenge is a dish best served cold” …
Have to agree with John about him not doing his due dillegence. That said, I’d still have to say more hero than zero. I’ll have a cold one for Marv tonight as well!
we need more Marvs.
I think that Dozer should be made into a monument for Marv. Perhaps right where City Hall used to be.
I think that Dozer should be made into a monument for Marv. Perhaps right where City Hall used to be.
I can sympathize with good old Marv…clearly he was pushed over the edge by a system that just does not care. If things don’t change I suspect we are likely to hear about more “Marv’s”…it’s unfortunate that someone had to be pushed that far, and ultimately take their own life to draw attention to his plight. Although I won’t be putting armour plotting on my tractor any time soon, I sure bet the Politicians and officials in that town think about how their actions may be preceived before being heavy handed with people…treat others as you would like to be treated yourself…you never know who the next Marv may be.
This is a prime example of what is wrong with this country
Marv fucked up and made some bad business and real estate decisions .
He left no access to his remaining property and continued to try to use it
with no sanitary arrangements and infrastructure .
Now he decided all those problems were not Marv’s fault ,and that the town/county/government/world were out to screw Marv !!
‘ I’ll show them ‘ he said !!!!
People need to be accountable for the decisions that they make and their actions.
If he meant no harm then why did he stock the thing full of guns have ports to shoot out of? He was a nut! I’ve been back n forth with my neighbors over the noise of my drag car, but I’m pretty sure if I took a wrecking ball to their house I’d be a bigger dumb ass than they are.
Screw with someone long enough and there going to come back and get you.
Some nut screws himself, blames everyone else and goes on a rampage, and we’re supposed to celebrate that?
Yep
WTF bangshift has stooped to an all time low glorifying this idiot. Hero my patoot this guy was a madman through nobodies fault BUT HIS OWN. Crap like this has no place on bangshift.
waaaah!… If it isn’t an article on chevys, you think it is crap. Bangshift has it going on. Look out if something isn’t politically correct, someone will get a bug up their patoot.
And it’s people like you that whine but you aren’t the ones to have to go and stop theses idiots. Nothing what so ever PC about this moron. You must be thinking of someone else in your whine I do not like chevies and never have.