June 24, 2004, is the day that the people of Granby, Colorado, will never forget. It was the day when more than a dozen of buildings were wrecked down by a rampaging bulldozer in a meticulously planned demolition project.
Neither the city nor construction workers put together the plan, however.
The multimillion worth of damage was the brainchild of an angry man named Marvin Heemeyer, who felt the city had failed him.
Horrified residents ran for their lives as Heemeyer, in his armor-plated bulldozer, drove through buildings and other vehicles on his way.
An accomplished welder, Heemeyer outfitted a bulldozer with two sheets of half-inch steel plating and a layer of concrete between them.
On that day, he practically sealed himself in the heavy-duty vehicle and took off on a violent ride.
He had cameras and video monitors inside the cockpit to see where he was going. Among the destroyed properties were a bank, a library, a concrete factory, and the town’s police department.
Some accounts hail him as the “last great American folk hero,” while another version considers him simply a lunatic. Here are the facts.
10 /10 Zoning Dispute
A simple way to describe the event is that Marvin Heemeyer built a tank and destroyed thirteen buildings because he lost a zoning dispute.
He felt the town of Granby took the easement to his muffler shop, forcing him to close down the business.
A local journalist and the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage,” Patrick Brower, claims that the town of Granby neither took nor blocked an easement to Heemeyer property, so there must be another reason behind the rampage.
9 /10 Fake News
Many people think of Heemeyer as a victim of an indifferent government, which approved the construction of a concrete factory without considering the possible impact on his businesses.
Admittedly there is some truth to the argument, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
The false depiction that put Heemeyer in a “victim” position started with a blog post containing an inaccurate background story.
The fake news in the blog claimed that the town of Granby had taken the easement of Heemeyer – assuming it had been true, such a decision would have ruined Heemeyer’s business indeed.