Marvin Heemeyer is America's last hero. Marvin Himeyer. The last American hero Advocate of the legalization of gambling

This story took place in 2004 in a small town in the state of Colorado and at one time shocked America and became known far beyond the borders of the United States.

So, in the town of Granby, whose population is only about 2 thousand people, lived and worked for the time being, an unremarkable person - his name was Marvin John Heemeyer. He worked as a welder, had his own workshop and was engaged in the repair and sale of automobile mufflers. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War, during which he served as a military technician at the airfield. Marvin was not married, and it is not known if he ever had a family at all. He also had no relatives in the town and its environs. He lived quietly and imperceptibly, he was quite a law-abiding and modest uncle. There is no consensus about his personal spiritual qualities. His neighbors and acquaintances call Heemeyer a "nice person", but at the same time it is known that he once threatened to kill the husband of a client who refused to pay him for his work in a fit of anger. One of his closest comrades says of him:

“If Marv was your friend, he was your best friend. But if he decided that he was your enemy, then he was your worst and most dangerous enemy.

One way or another, for the time being, no one noticed anything out of the ordinary in the behavior of John Heemeyer. So far, Mountain Park has decided to expand its cement plant. To do this, she began to buy up plots located near the enterprise, while offering decent compensation for them. The owners of the plant also wanted to buy Marvin's land. It was a fairly large piece of land - at one time John bought it for several tens of thousands of dollars. Although the company offered quite a decent price, Heemeyer did not agree and asked for 250 thousand dollars, but soon changed his mind and raised the price to 375 thousand, and then demanded $ 1 million altogether. I must say, there is information that he was not initially offered a lot of money, but still it was a very good compensation.

Negotiations dragged on until 2001, when the zoning commission and the city authorities approved a plan to expand the plant. However, the stubborn welder did not calm down and tried to appeal the decision in court, though without success. Marvin began to slowly push out of his site. The expansion of the factory blocked his entrance to the workshop. City authorities fined him $2,500 for various violations. The sewerage was first turned off for the owner of the auto repair shop, and when he left for his father's funeral, water and electricity were also cut off, and the workshop itself was sealed. Then Marvin moved to decisive action.

I must say that when the road was blocked for him, he acquired a decommissioned mining bulldozer " Komatsu D355A-3". This is a huge machine, such equipment is used, for example, by the Gazprom company in polar developments. With the help of a bulldozer, he wanted to pave his own road to the workshop, but he was not allowed to do this. And then Heemeyer decided to make an infernal revenge machine out of this tractor. He worked on it for almost a year and a half in his workshop. He scalded it with 12-mm steel sheets, moreover, he made spaced double armor: a layer of concrete was laid between the metal layers. This made the homemade armored car virtually invulnerable. Later, 200 bullets fired at him and three explosions will barely hurt him.

Monitors were installed inside to guide the bulldozer through video cameras outside. The cells were protected by armored plastic and even provided with a pneumatic cleaning system. Marvin thought of everything down to the smallest detail. Inside there was air conditioning, a gas mask, a refrigerator with some provisions and water. He also prepared weapons: a Ruger-223 carbine, a Remington-306 rifle, pistols and ammunition. John initially knew that he would not get out of the cab again, so using the remote control of the crane, he lowered another armored box onto the roof, blocking the exit.

On June 4, 2004, he drove out of the garage. Heemeyer outlined in advance the objects that he decided to wipe off the face of the earth. First, he leveled the hated cement plant, all the shops and the administration building with the ground; mangled the facades of the houses of members of the city council; destroyed the bank, which wanted to take away the workshop from him, finding fault with an allegedly incorrectly issued loan. Then the buildings were demolished: the mayor's office, the city council, the fire inspection, as well as the house where the widow of the former mayor lived. Even the office of the gas company that refused to fill Marvin's cylinders, and the editorial office of the newspaper that wrote articles about him, did not survive.

13 administrative buildings were destroyed. And the damage caused amounted to 7 million dollars. Despite the fact that Heemeyer demolished almost half of the city, by some miracle, none of the inhabitants were injured. Of course, they tried to stop the bulldozer. They shot at him, threw grenades at him, blocked his way with a road tractor-grader, but no one could even slow down the machine of destruction. The grader was easily thrown aside, and when the cooling radiator was shot at the armored car, it still continued its inexorable march. The engines of such machines are very strong, and they do not soon wedge from overheating.

Finally, the Killdozer (that is, the killer bulldozer, as it was later called) nevertheless got stuck in the ruins of the building, falling into a small basement. He was no longer able to leave - the engine finally jammed from overheating. The cabin was cut only the next day. When it was opened, it turned out that John Marvin had already been dead for a day. The 52-year-old welder shot himself in the head as soon as he finished his job. They decided to cut the Killdozer into many parts and take them to different landfills, since Heemeyer had fans who could disassemble the car for souvenirs.

This is such an amazing story, especially for the law-abiding United States of America. This case can be assessed in different ways. Marvin found a considerable number of admirers around the world. He was called "the last hero of America" and was used as a symbol of the opposition of an individual to a soulless state system.

So, how did a perfectly respectable American taxpayer and useful citizen come to such a life? Of course, everything can be attributed to the military past, to the “echoes of the war” and the “Vietnamese syndrome”. But after all, although Marvin served in Vietnam, during the war he worked as a mechanic at the airfield, repairing and servicing US Air Force aircraft, and it is not known whether he took any part in the hostilities at all. Although, of course, war is not a mother and always leaves a certain imprint on the psyche of people who have been to it.

It is also hard to believe that Heemeyer was a mentally ill, inadequate person. No one noticed mental abnormalities in his behavior. In addition, for a year and a half, he very rationally, balanced and thoughtfully carried out his project.

We, “born in the USSR” and living in Russia, where, unfortunately, always “the severity of the laws was compensated by the optionality of their implementation” and “the laws were that they breathed: where you turned, it went there”, where “from prison and from the bag no one - from the proletarian to the oligarch - promises, - we all do not really understand why Marvin was so outraged by the decision of the authorities to expand the plant and revise the boundaries of his property with the payment of compensation to him. For us, this situation, unfortunately, is a harsh everyday life. They build a new road, a microdistrict or an elite village - and the house in which, perhaps, you were born and which your parents built, is demolished, and they give you an apartment in a concrete box, in a completely different, inconvenient area for you. This happens all the time.

But all this is unthinkable chaos for the American layman. How! After all, this is my private property. And she is sacred, I am a free citizen of a free country. Although corruption and human insecurity before the law are present in America, especially now. Of course, it is unpleasant for everyone to leave their familiar place, which you yourself have chosen, got used to and arranged. But after all, Heemeyer was also offered a lot of money, several times more than the real cost of the site - so to speak, compensation for moral damage. Yes, and free land in Colorado, I'm sure, a lot, tea is not Rublevo-Uspenskoe. It was possible to safely buy a new site and rebuild the workshop even better and larger than before, even more than one. In addition, besides the seizure of property, there are much more terrible things. For example, when you or your loved ones are illegally imprisoned or when the state takes away your children, which is practiced all the time in Western countries.

This man, according to the testimony of people who knew him personally, was prone to irascibility, rancor, and resentment. Apparently, the tendency to anger, aggression and sociopathy prevented him from starting a family. It is also known that Heemeyer had no relatives and friends in the city and its environs. He did not have a family, close people, communication and care for which could soften his heart, become the goal of his life.

He knew in advance that after his action he would never get out of the tractor again. His act was not the revenge of Monte Cristo, with the desire to restore his good name and enrich himself. It was not even the act of Herostratus, who, although he was executed, saw the fruits of his destructive activity, saw the reaction of people and realized that he would not be forgotten. John didn't need any of that. Otherwise, he would not have shot himself in the cockpit, but, having done his job, he calmly surrendered to the authorities and would not have spent a very long time in a humane American prison, giving interviews and watching programs with his participation on TV.

His task and goal were quite different. In this case, the satisfaction of the thirst for revenge, which lasted several tens of minutes, because the bulldozer was able to turn half the city into ruins very quickly, was the goal to which Marvin had been going for several years. Surely, he had repeatedly imagined how the city would shudder from the lion's roar of the 400-horsepower Killdozer engine. How pavements will tremble and glass will tinkle when a multi-ton steel monster rolls towards its goals. How offices and houses of hated enemies will crumble and fall.

According to local authorities, he fired 15 shots, including at transformers and propane tanks, which posed a huge threat to the population. True, there are other eyewitness accounts that Heemeyer fired into the air to scare off the police. But one way or another, if you suddenly demolish 13 buildings in broad daylight and at the same time shoot right and left, only a miracle can save people from death.

Overall rating of the material: 4.9

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Marvin Heemeyer (October 28, 1951 – June 4, 2004) was an American welder who owned a muffler repair shop in Granby, Colorado. The town is microscopic, 2200 inhabitants. He officially bought his land plot for a workshop and a shop for pretty decent money at an auction (something about $ 15,000, for this he sold his share in a large car service in Denver).
He also built snowmobiles as a hobby and used them to drive newlyweds around Granby during the winter. Like in a limousine. He even had an appropriate license (I never suspected that such activities could be licensed at all). In my opinion, the uncle was quite good-natured and extremely cool. However, "While many people described Heemeyer as a likeable guy, others said he was not someone to cross." He served at one time in the Air Force, as an airfield technician, and since then he has been working steadily in the engineering and technical part. He lived to be fifty-two years old, unmarried (some kind of sad love story happened to him at one time).

Heemeyer, a 52-year-old welder, has lived in Granby for several years fixing car mufflers. His small workshop was closely adjacent to the Mountain Park cement plant. To the annoyance of Heemeyer and the plant's other neighbors, Mountain Park decided to expand, forcing them to sell their land.
Sooner or later, all the neighbors of the plant surrendered, but not Heemeyer. The manufacturers were never able to acquire his land, although they tried to do it by hook or by crook. In general, having despaired of culturally resolving the issue, the peasant began to persecute. Since all the land around the 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 purpose, 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.
The tax office ran over several times with retail, fire inspection, sanitary and epidemiological supervision, the latter issued a fine of $ 2500 for the enchanting "junk cars on the property and not being hooked up to the sewer line" (in general, in his workshop "there was a tank that did not meet sanitary standards.") speech, let me remind you , was talking about a car repair shop. Marvin could not connect to the sewer, because the land on which the ditch was to be dug also belonged to the plant and the plant was in no hurry to give him such permission. Marvin paid. By attaching to the receipt when sending a short note - "Cowards". Some time later, his father died (31-Mar-2004), Marvin went to bury him, and while he was away, the electricity and water were cut off for him and the workshop was sealed. After that, he closed himself in the workshop. Almost no one saw him.

Finally, on June 4, 2004, Heemeyer took a concrete revenge. For all.
It took about two months, according to some reports, and about a year and a half, according to others, to create the Armored Bulldozer .. 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 in case they were blinded by dust and debris. Prudent Marvin stocked up on food, water, ammunition and a gas mask. (Two Ruger-223s and one Remington-306 with cartridges.) With the help of a remote control, he lowered an armor box onto the chassis, locking himself inside. 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. And at 14:30 left the garage.

To begin with, he drove through the territory of the plant, carefully demolishing the plant administration building, production workshops and, in general, everything down to the last shed. 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 press him through the early return of the mortgage loan. He destroyed 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, a warehouse, several residential buildings belonging to the mayor of the city. He tore down the editorial office of the local newspaper and the public library. In short, he demolished everything that had at least some relation to the local authorities, including their private houses. Moreover, he showed good awareness of who owns what.

They tried to stop Himayer. First, the local sheriff with deputies. Let me remind you that the bulldozer was equipped with centimeter spaced armor. The local police used revolvers-nines and shotguns. With clear results. Zero. The local SWAT team was alerted. Then forest rangers. SWAT had grenades, rangers had assault rifles. Some particularly dashing sergeant jumped from the roof onto the hood of a bulldozer and tried to throw a stun grenade down the exhaust pipe. It's hard to say what he wanted to achieve - 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 actual pipes. The sergeant, of course, also survived. The teardrop did not take the driver - the monitors were visible even in a gas mask.

Himayer actively fired back through loopholes cut in the armor. Not a single person was hurt by his fire. Because he shot significantly higher than the goals. In other words, to the sky. However, the police did not dare to approach him any more. In total, counting the huntsmen, by that time about 40 people had gathered. The bulldozer took more than 200 hits from everything from service revolvers to M-16s and grenades. They tried to stop him with a hefty scraper. "Komatsu D355A" without much difficulty shoved the scraper backwards into the front of the store and left it there. A car stuffed with explosives on the way of Himayer also did not give desired result. The only achievement was a radiator pierced by a ricochet - however, as mining experience shows, such bulldozers do not immediately pay attention even to a complete failure of the cooling system.
All that the police could really 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". In my opinion, there was simply nothing more to demolish there, there was still a station for refueling liquefied gas, but its explosion would have smashed half the town without making out where the mayor's house was and where the scavenger was.
The bulldozer stopped, ironing the ruins of the Gambles department store. In the sudden deathly silence, steam escaping from a broken radiator whistled furiously, it was filled up with roof debris, it got stuck and died out.
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 with an autogen, he had already been dead for half a day. Marvin kept the last cartridge for himself. He was not going to give himself alive into the clutches of his enemies.

As the governor of Colorado so aptly put it, "the city looks like it's been tornadoed through." The city was indeed damaged by $5,000,000, the plant - by $2,000,000. On the scale of a small town, this meant almost complete destruction. The plant never recovered from the attack and sold the area along with the ruins.
Some smart people wanted to put the bulldozer on a pedestal and make it a landmark, but the majority insisted on melting it down. For the inhabitants of the town, this incident causes, as you might guess, extremely mixed emotions.
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 a not very powerful artillery shell: it was completely covered with armored plates, each of which consisted of two sheets of half-inch (about 1.3 cm) steel, fastened together with a cement pad.

Here is such an amusing story about what a spontaneous protest against the arbitrariness of a technically competent loner can develop into. Whether Heemeyer is a hero or a madman is up to you.

A non-standard post for me, copy-paste very rarely slips through the blog. But I couldn't share it. This is a story about an incredibly cool American dude who could not bear the insults and took revenge on the offenders for 7 million bucks. Even though he lost his life. This story deserves the coolest adaptation ever! I highly recommend reading this story and looking at the handmade tank

He also built snowmobiles as a hobby and used them to drive newlyweds around Granby during the winter. Like in a limousine. He even had an appropriate license (I never suspected that such activities could be licensed at all). In my opinion, the uncle was quite good-natured and extremely cool. However, "While many people described Heemeyer as a likeable guy, others said he was not someone to cross." He served at one time in the Air Force, as an airfield technician, and since then he has been working steadily in the engineering and technical part. He lived to be fifty-two years old, unmarried (some kind of sad love story happened to him at one time).

Granby on the map

Sooner or later, all the neighbors of the plant surrendered, but not Heemeyer. The manufacturers were never able to acquire his land, although they tried to do it by hook or by crook. In general, having despaired of culturally resolving the issue, the peasant began to persecute. Since all the land around the 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 purpose, restoring the engine on it in his workshop.

Marvin had a bulldozer of this brand

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.

The retail tax office, the fire inspectorate, and sanitary and epidemiological supervision ran over several times, the latter issued a fine of $ 2,500 for the enchanting "junk cars on the property and not being hooked up to the sewer line" (in general, in his workshop "there was a reservoir, not meeting sanitary standards.”), let me remind you, it was about a car repair shop. Marvin could not connect to the sewer, because the land on which the ditch was to be dug also belonged to the plant and the plant was in no hurry to give him such permission. Marvin paid. By attaching to the receipt when sending a short note - "Cowards". Some time later, his father died (31-Mar-2004), Marvin went to bury him, and while he was away, the electricity and water were cut off for him and the workshop was sealed. After that, he closed himself in the workshop. Almost no one saw him.

It took about two months, according to some reports, and about a year and a half, according to others, to create the Armored Bulldozer .. 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 in case they were blinded by dust and debris. Prudent Marvin stocked up on food, water, ammunition and a gas mask. (Two Ruger-223s and one Remington-306 with cartridges.) With the help of a remote control, he lowered an armor box onto the chassis, locking himself inside. 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. And at 14:30 left the garage.

It looked like this:

Marvin made a list of targets ahead of time. Anyone who felt it necessary to take revenge.
"Sometimes, as he put it in his notes, reasonable men must do unreasonable things."

Heemeyer returned fire from two semi-automatic rifles of the twenty-third and one semi-automatic rifle of the fiftieth caliber through the loopholes specially made in the armor on the left, right and front, respectively. However, according to experts, he did everything to ensure that no one was hurt, shooting more to intimidate and not letting the police stick their noses out from behind their cars. None of the policemen received a scratch.

The pursuit

Sheriff's parking lot

Ruins of Mountain Park Inc. Cement Plant Administration.

Cement Plant Mountain Park Inc.

Municipal building that served as a hall and library

Liberty Bank

Himayer actively fired back through loopholes cut in the armor. Not a single person was hurt by his fire. Because he shot significantly higher than the goals. In other words, to the sky. However, the police did not dare to approach him any more. In total, counting the huntsmen, by that time about 40 people had gathered. The bulldozer took more than 200 hits from everything from service revolvers to M-16s and grenades. They tried to stop him with a hefty scraper. "Komatsu D355A" without much difficulty shoved the scraper backwards into the front of the store and left it there. The car stuffed with explosives on the path of Himayer also did not give the desired result. The only achievement was a radiator pierced by a ricochet - however, as mining experience 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).

Highway No. 40

"Himayer's War" ended at 16:23.

The bulldozer stopped, ironing the ruins of the Gambles department store. In the sudden deathly silence, steam escaping from a broken radiator whistled furiously, it was filled up with roof debris, it got stuck and died out.

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 with an autogen, he had already been dead for half a day. Marvin kept the last cartridge for himself. He was not going to give himself alive into the clutches of his enemies.

Heemeyer was not one to give up!

As the governor of Colorado so aptly put it, "the city looks like it's been tornadoed through." The city was indeed damaged by $5,000,000, the factory by $2,000,000. On the scale of a small town, this meant almost complete destruction. The plant never recovered from the attack and sold the area along with the ruins.

Destruction Map

They called him "Killdozer"

Some smart people wanted to put the bulldozer on a pedestal and make it a landmark, but the majority insisted on melting it down. For the inhabitants of the town, this incident causes, as you might guess, extremely mixed emotions.

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 a not very powerful artillery shell: it was completely covered with armored plates, each of which consisted of two sheets of half-inch (about 1.3 cm) steel, fastened together with a cement pad.

“He was a nice guy,” recall people who knew Heemeyer closely.

"You shouldn't have pissed him off." “If he was your friend, then he was your best friend. Well, if the enemy is the most dangerous, ”Marvin's comrades say.

This act was admired by many people in the US and around the world. Marvin Heemeyer began to be called "the last American hero." Now this case is assessed as a spontaneous anti-globalist action.

This story is not new, but will not leave anyone indifferent.

There was this man with a capital M, named Marvin John Heemeyer.

He worked as a welder, repairing car mufflers in the town of Granby, Colorado. The town is microscopic, 2200 inhabitants. He had a workshop there, with a store. As I understand it, he officially bought the land plot under this workshop for pretty decent money at an auction (something about $ 15,000, for this he sold his share in a large car service in Denver).

Granby, Colorado Still, as a hobby, he built snowmobiles and used them to drive honeymooners around Granby during the winter. Like in a limousine. He even had an appropriate license (I never suspected that such activities could be licensed at all). In my opinion, the uncle was quite good-natured and extremely cool. However, "While many people described Heemeyer as a likeable guy, others said he was not someone to cross." He served at one time in the Air Force, as an airfield technician, and since then he has been working steadily in the engineering and technical part. He lived to be fifty-two years old, unmarried (some kind of sad love story happened to him at one time).
Heemeyer, a 52-year-old welder, has lived in Granby for several years fixing car mufflers. His small workshop was closely adjacent to the Mountain Park cement plant. To the annoyance of Heemeyer and the plant's other neighbors, Mountain Park decided to expand, forcing them to sell their land.

Sooner or later, all the neighbors of the plant surrendered, but not Heemeyer.
The manufacturers were never able to acquire his land, although they tried to do it by hook or by crook. In general, having despaired of culturally resolving the issue, the peasant began to persecute. Since all the land around the 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 purpose, 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.

Marvin made a list of targets ahead of time. Anyone who felt it necessary to take revenge.
"Sometimes, as he put it in his notes, reasonable men must do unreasonable things."

To begin with, he drove through the territory of the plant, carefully demolishing the plant administration building, production workshops and, in general, everything down to the last shed.

Ruins of Mountain Park Inc. Cement Plant Administration.

Cement Plant Mountain Park Inc.

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 press him through the early return of the mortgage loan. He destroyed 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, a warehouse, several residential buildings belonging to the mayor of the city. He tore down the editorial office of the local newspaper and the public library. In short, he demolished everything that had at least some relation to the local authorities, including their private houses. Moreover, he showed good awareness of who owns what.

Sheriff's parking lot

Municipal building that served as a hall and library

Liberty Bank

They tried to stop Himeyer. First, the local sheriff with deputies. Let me remind you that the bulldozer was equipped with centimeter spaced armor. The local police used revolvers-nines and shotguns. With clear results. Zero. The local SWAT team was alerted. Then forest rangers. SWAT had grenades, rangers had assault rifles. Some particularly dashing sergeant jumped from the roof onto the hood of a bulldozer and tried to throw a stun grenade down the exhaust pipe. It's hard to say what he wanted to achieve - 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 sergeant, of course, also survived. The teardrop did not take the driver - the monitors were visible even in a gas mask.

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 the goals. In other words, to the sky. However, the police did not dare to approach him any more. In total, counting the huntsmen, by that time about 40 people had gathered. The bulldozer took more than 200 hits from everything from service revolvers to M-16s and grenades. They tried to stop him with a hefty scraper. "Komatsu D355A" without much difficulty shoved the scraper backwards into the front of the store and left it there. The car stuffed with explosives on the path of Heemeyer also did not give the desired result. The only achievement was a radiator pierced by a ricochet - however, as mining experience shows, such bulldozers do not immediately pay attention even to a complete failure of the cooling system.

"Heemeyer's War" ended at 16:23.

Heemeyer was not one to give up!

Destruction Map

“He was a nice guy,” recall people who knew Heemeyer closely.
"You shouldn't have pissed him off." “If he was your friend, then he was your best friend. Well, if the enemy is the most dangerous, ”Marvin's comrades say.

This act was admired by many people in the US and around the world. Marvin Heemeyer began to be called "the last American hero." Now this case is assessed as a spontaneous anti-globalist action.

Territorial disputes

In 2001, the zoning commission and the city authorities approved the construction of a cement plant. Heemeyer tried unsuccessfully to appeal the decision. For many years, Heemeyer used the adjoining lot as a driveway to his own auto muffler repair and sales shop. The expansion of the cement plant deprived him of this opportunity. The city also fined Heemeyer $2,500 for various violations, including "sewage containers in areas not connected to a sewer." Heemeyer would need to cross 2.4 meters of factory ground for such a connection.

Bulldozer modifications

Heemeyer had leased his business and property to a garbage collection company months before the events. Two years before them, he bought a bulldozer in order to use it to equip the road to the store, but the city authorities did not allow him to build the road.

It took a year and a half to prepare the bulldozer. In notes later found by the investigation, Heemeyer wrote: “I wonder how I haven’t been caught yet. The project took up part of my time for over a year and a half." He was surprised that none of his visitors found the changes in the bulldozer strange, "especially with an increase in its mass by 910 kg."

The bulldozer in question is a crawler Komatsu D355A with an armored cab. In some places, the thickness of the armor reached more than 30 centimeters, it consisted of several layers of steel sheets and cement and was a combined armor. She gave protection from small arms and explosives. Three explosions and more than 200 bullets fired at the bulldozer did little to no harm.

Heemeyer's revenge

Heemeyera bulldozer

On June 4, 2004, Heemeyer drove his armored bulldozer through the wall of his shop, then through a cement plant, the administration building (Town Hall), the office of a local newspaper, the house of the widow of a former judge, and others. The owners of all the damaged buildings were involved in one way or another with disputes over the land owned by Heemeyer.

Heemeyer destroyed 13 buildings, with total damage estimated at more than $7 million. Despite the massive destruction of property, no one other than Heemeyer was physically harmed.

Many residents of the city were notified by the authorities about what was happening and were able to evacuate in advance. In 11 of the 13 buildings demolished by Heemeyer, there were people until the last moment.

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SIMILAR MATERIALS (BY MARKS):

Territorial disputes

Bulldozer modifications

Heemeyer's revenge

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