The name given to a heavily armored bulldozer used in mass demolition in the city of Granby, Colorado in 2004. The story begins with Marvin Heemeyer, a welder who bought a plot of land to open a muffler repair shop, this would throw a wrench into the plans of another group, the Docheff family, who owned a concrete company and intended to use the land to build a factory.

The Docheff’s would offer to buy the land from Heemeyer, however he kept raising the price (evidently not wanting to sell the land). Finally giving up, the Docheff’s would go to city hall to have Marvin’s property re zoned so the factory could be built next door. Marvin would petition to have this decision reversed due to the factory 1. Creating a loud and dusty environment for his shop and 2. The factory would be built on the road leading to his shop, blocking access. The petition would be denied and the factory was built. Marvin then petitioned to have a new road built leading to his shop, even buying all the equipment he needed to do it himself, this was also denied.(It should also be noted that construction of the factory cut off Marvin’s water and sewer connection and he was fined for not being connected to the sewer)

With his business now in ruins, Marvin began to plot his revenge and what he called justice for those who wronged him. One of the pieces of equipment he bought in hopes of building a new road was a Komatsu D355-A bulldozer, which he would use as his foundation. He began to construct armor for the bulldozer using concrete and plate steel, (on some parts it was about 1 foot thick) covering the cab, engine and part of the track. Inside, there were three monitors connected to cameras protected with bulletproof plastic on the exterior. There were three gun ports on the sides and back, each equipped with an AR-15, a .22lr rifle and a .50 BMG rifle. The cab was even equipped with an air conditioner and a tank of compressed air to blow dust away from the cameras. It should be noted that Marvin designed this armor with no hatch and was designed to be lowered onto the bulldozer with a hoist in his shop, so once he was inside, there was no way out.

Then the day came, Marvin entered the bulldozer, lowered the armor and disconnected the hoist. Driving through the wall of his shop and straight to the people who wronged him. First, obviously, the concrete factory, he would then move onto other targets including city hall, a newspaper office that lied about him, and the home of the former mayor’s widow, among other properties of people who he felt wronged or were ultimately against him. It wasn’t until the stress from the added weight of the armor finally took its toll on the machine, the bulldozers radiator would suffer a catastrophic failure, and its fluids can be seen leaking as steam rose from the engine bay. To add salt to the wound while demolishing a hardware store, one of the tracks would fall through the floor into a basement, trapping it. As the police approached, they heard one gunshot, and that was the end of Marvin Heemeyer.

It should be noted that in this entire event, there was only one casualty (you know who), and after this story, the bulldozer and armor was cut apart and disposed of in several junkyards across the US to prevent the collection of souvenirs. In some people’s minds, Marvin was a hero, others he was a villain, some argue he was neither, just a man with nothing left who was pushed to his limit.

“Sometimes reasonable people must do unreasonable things” -Marvin Heemeyer

https://www.machinerytrader.com/listings/for-sale/dozers/1025?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-aOMuZbshgMVVq5aBR0IxgNBEAAYAiAAEgLnofD_BwE