What started as a normal day in the small town of Granby, Colorado ended in complete destruction on June 4th, 2004. A man by the name of Marvin Heemeyer took it upon himself to get back at what he believed was wrongdoing by his local city. After bulldozing over a dozen buildings, patrol cars, vehicles, and nearly 7 million dollars in damage to the city, Marvin incredibly hurt no one in the rampage except himself, taking his own life at the end.
Now, almost two decades later, Marvin Heemeyer has become something of a martyr for certain groups and hailed as a hero for standing up against "The Big Guys." But there are always two sides of every story. Is he a hero or was he a victim of a bad situation he made worse?
Marvin Heemeyer moved to Granby, Colorado to open his exhaust shop. He had two acres of land with a muffler shop on it that a concrete factory was trying to purchase.
Marvin originally bought the land for $42,000 and agreed to sell it for $250,000 to the corporation that wanted to build the concrete factory. But then he changed his mind and wanted $375,000 for it of which the corporation agreed. Marvin then after some time wanted nearly a million dollar deal for the corporation to be able to build the concrete factory on his land. They eventually agreed.
Once construction started, Marvin’s muffler shop began to take a hit by the operation and city fines that he believed were unfair to him. Martin began to become aggravated because the construction was blocking his path to work. The construction then disconnected his shop from the city sewage lines, of which the city decided to fine Marvin for. He tried suing and fighting for his rights to own and operate his business fairly to no avail.
With his business and livelihood now in ruin from what he believed the city and corporation were responsible for, he decided to fight back. He took money from what he had earned during the land sale and began constructing an armored bulldozer in secret.
After a year and a half of building a one-of-a-kind armored bulldozer complete with bullet proof plexiglass, steel plates and concrete, cameras to see and operate, weapon holes for his firearms, air conditioning, and supplies to stay inside for as long as he needed to complete his agenda of destruction, he was ready to deliver justice to those he felt wronged him. He burst out of the muffler shop and straight into the concrete factory. After spending time destroying construction progress he targeted other buildings, homes, and businesses of those involved in the zoning and concrete factory fiasco.
Authorities tried stopping it with no success. The bulldozer was immune to small arms fire and explosives. At some point the city tried calling in the national guard to have an Apache helicopter fire a missile to neutralize the bulldozer. Finally after hours of destruction Marvin got stuck in a hardware store he plowed into. With no way out he took his own life.
Marvin Heemeyer left notes and one of which saying
"I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things."
We don’t know all the details into the dispute between Marvin Heemeyer, the city council, and the concrete factory, but one thing we do know is that a hardworking man felt he was wronged and went to great lengths to get justice against those he felt wronged him. Check out the video below!
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