An incredible event took place in 2004 in Granby, Colorado.
Marvin Heemeyer is an American welder who owns a muffler repair shop in Granby, Colorado. The town is microscopic, with 2200 inhabitants. He officially bought his land plot for a workshop and 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). Fifty-two-year-old welder Hemeyer managed to live in Granby for several years, fixing car mufflers ... His small workshop was closely adjacent to the Mountain Park cement plant. Much to the displeasure of Himeyer and other neighbors of the plant, Mountain Park decided to expand, forcing them to sell their land plots.
Sooner or later, all the neighbors of the plant surrendered, but not Himeyer. The factory owners could not acquire its land, although they tried to do it by hook or by crook. In general, desperate to culturally resolve 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 a different road, and even bought a decommissioned Komatsu D355A-3 bulldozer to do so and rebuild the engine in his workshop. However, the city government 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. Hemeyer tried to restore justice by suing Mountain Park, but he lost the legal battle.
Several times the tax office ran into retail, fire inspection, sanitary inspection, 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.") , was about an auto repair shop. Marvin could not connect to the sewer, since the land on which the ditch should be dug also belonged to the plant and the plant was in no hurry to give him such permission. Marvin paid. Attaching to the receipt when sending a short note - "Cowards". After a while, his father died, Marvin went to bury him, and while he was away, they cut off the light, water and sealed his workshop. After that, he locked himself in the workshop. Almost no one saw him.
The creation of the Armored Bulldozer took about two months, according to some reports, and about one and a half years, according to others. She sheathed it with twelve-millimeter steel sheets, laid with a centimeter layer of cement. Equipped with TV cameras with image display on monitors inside the cab. Equipped cameras with lens cleaning systems in case of blinding dust and debris. The prudent Marvin stocked up on food, water, ammunition and a gas mask. (Two "Ruger-223" and one "Remington-306" with cartridges.) Using the remote control, he lowered the armored box onto the chassis, locking himself inside. To lower this shell onto the bulldozer's cab, Hemeyer used a homemade crane. “As he lowered it, Hemeyer realized that after that he would not get out of the car,” police experts said. And at 14:30 I left the garage.
Marvin drew up a list of goals ahead of time. All whom he considered it necessary to take revenge on.
Hemeyer returned fire from two twenty-third semi-automatic rifles and one fifty-caliber semi-automatic rifle through specially made loopholes in the armor on the left, right and front, respectively. However, according to experts, he did everything so that none of the people were injured, shooting more to intimidate and not letting the police poke their nose out of their cars. None of the police officers received a scratch.
To begin with, he drove through the territory of the plant, carefully demolishing the building of the plant management, production workshops and in general everything to the last barn. Then he moved around the town. I removed the facades from the houses of the members of the city council. Demolished the building of the bank, which tried to press on it through early repayment of the mortgage loan. Destroyed the buildings of the Ixel Energy gas company, which refused to refuel its kitchens after a fine gas cylinders, the building of the city hall, the office of the city council, the fire department, the warehouse, several residential buildings that belonged to the mayor of the city. To a heap he ransacked the editorial office of the local newspaper and the public library. In short, he demolished everything that had anything to do with 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 assistants. Let me remind you that the bulldozer was equipped with a centimeter spaced armor. Local police used nines and shotguns. With a clear result. With zero. A local SWAT squad was raised on alert. Then the forest rangers. SWAT had grenades, the rangers had assault rifles. Some particularly dashing sergeant jumped from the roof onto the hood of the bulldozer and tried to throw a stun grenade into the exhaust pipe. It's hard to say what he wanted to achieve - the son of a bitch Himayer, as it turned out, welded a grate there, so the only thing that the bulldozer lost as a result was the pipes itself. The sergeant, of course, also survived. The driver's tear runner did not take - the monitors could be seen in the gas mask. Hemayer actively fired back through the embrasures cut in the armor. Not a single person was hurt by its fire. Because he shot much higher than the heads. To put it simply, into the sky. However, the policemen no longer dared to approach him. In total, counting their rangers, about 40 people had gathered by that time. The bulldozer took over 200 hits from everything from service revolvers to M-16s and grenades. They tried to stop him with a hefty scraper. "Komatsu D355A" easily shoved the scraper backwards into the front of the store and left it there. The car filled with explosives on the way of Himayer also did not give the desired result. The only achievement was the radiator, punctured by a rebound - however, as experience shows quarry work, such bulldozers do not immediately pay attention to even 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 the interstate 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 was still a station for refueling liquefied gas, but its explosion would have blown up half of the town without disassembling where the mayor's house was and where the garbage man was.
The bulldozer stood, ironing the ruins of the Gambles department store. In the sudden deathly silence, steam escaping from a punctured radiator whistled furiously, it was covered with debris from the roof, it got stuck and stalled.
At first, the police were afraid for a long time to approach the Hemeyer 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 were afraid of the last trap that Marvin could arrange for them. When the armor was finally pierced by an autogenous blowtorch, he was already half a day dead. The last patron Marvin kept for himself. He was not going to fall into the clutches of his enemies alive.
As the Governor of Colorado said, "The city looks like a tornado swept through it." The city was really damaged by $ 5,000,000, the plant - by $ 2,000,000. Given the scale of the city, this meant its almost complete destruction. The plant never recovered from the attack and sold the territory along with the ruins. Some smart people wanted to put the bulldozer on a pedestal and make it a landmark, but most insisted on melting it down.
Then the investigation began. It turned out that “Khimeyer'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 Chimeier closely.
"You shouldn't have pissed him off." “If he was your friend, then it was your best friend. And if the enemy is the most dangerous, ”say Marvin's comrades.
This act has drawn admiration from many people in the United States and around the world. Marvin Hemeyer began to be called "the last American hero."
Completely taken from here
In the absence of worthy heroes of our time, The Kaliningrad Room continues to turn to the past in search of inspiration, and today we have an idol next in line office workers, unbalanced schoolchildren and sociopaths of all stripes - a skilled welder, a frustrated tanker and a tornado man, Marvin John Hemeyer.
This story that American means mass media later christened "The War of Marvin Himeyer", began back in 1992 in a small town called Granby (only about 2200 inhabitants at that time), which is located in the state of Colorado. The hero of our story, old Marvin, an experienced engineer and a former airfield technician of the US Air Force, then acquired about eight thousand square meters of land in the city in order to open his own car repair shop here, honestly work on it and thereby benefit the capitalist society. But, like any other decent tragedy, this one must have its own villain, who will unobtrusively appear at the very beginning, and then play a fatal role in it: in the case of Marvin Hemeyer, such a villain turned out to be Granby's city-forming enterprise, a local cement plant. which, among other things, was owned by very specific individuals, namely the Docheff family.
Throughout the nineties, the Chimeyera car service successfully, but without any special pretensions, ran its business, for the time being without entering into conflict with the administration of the plant, with the territory of which it bordered on one side. However, that all changed when closer to the millennium the Docheff family decided to increase the production capacity of the enterprise by building another processing line, which, of course, required land. Quite quickly, all the plots adjacent to the plant were bought up, and the only one who suddenly refused to sell the cherished acres, to the misfortune of the plant administration, was none other than old Marvin, who categorically did not want to part with his workshop and move anywhere.
According to Susan Docheff, the die-hard locksmith was initially offered $ 250,000, despite the fact that in 1992 the land cost him only $ 42,000. But by the time when it seemed that mutual understanding had already been practically achieved, Hemeyer decided to go for the principle and raised the price first to 375 thousand, and then to a million dollars, which made the deal simply impossible.
Actually, when it is impossible to agree with a person, they begin to persecute him.... Perhaps, if this story had happened not in the law-abiding States, but somewhere in the outback of Russia, the body of the intractable businessman would have been found in the nearest river and the matter would not have gone so far, but the American villains, unlike ours, are playing fair. Therefore, it was decided for the man to survive with the light, cutting off oxygen for him: since all the land in the area already belonged to the plant, the site that Hemeyer had previously used to drive up to his car service was now closed to him. The local administration, in turn, sided with big businessmen and even fined Marvin's workshop $ 2,500 for not being connected to the city sewer system. Our hero could not fix this either, because the territory through which the pipes should have been laid again belonged to a cement plant, and that, of course, was not interested in such a simple solution to the problem. Therefore, the fine had to be paid, but according to rumors, Marvin Hemeyer attached a note to the money with just one word: "Underpants".
While many viewed Himmeyer as a nice guy, others noted that he was not the right person to cross.
From this moment on, the most important and most formidable participant in history enters the development of events: bulldozer Komatsu D355A... Marvin acquired it in 2002 in order to independently pave a new road to the auto repair shop, because the client had to be able to somehow get into it, so that the business would not completely collapse. The only strange thing about all this is that Marvin, who by that time had already eaten the dog in the fight with the authorities, did not assume that these very authorities would not banally allow him to build any roads. Although ... maybe he didn't really count on it, and when buying a decommissioned bulldozer he knew in advance what kind of destruction and chaos would be sown in the near future. It took Marvin Himeyer almost a year and a half to make artisanal upgrades to his Komatsu, but as you know, revenge is a dish served cold. Xzibit, with its polished customization, nervously smokes on the sidelines, looking at what improvements the old bulldozer has undergone:
- First of all, an impromptu anti-cumulative, that is, combined armor, in theory capable of protecting against a direct hit from an anti-tank projectile. An inch of steel (about 1.3 cm), then almost 8 inches of concrete, and again an inch of steel. In some places, the total thickness of the armor reached 30 cm!
- Outdoor video cameras with a monitor in the cab, providing the driver with a wide view. The camera lenses were prudently protected by three inches of bullet-proof glass, and were also equipped with a system for cleaning from dirt and dust, for which they used compressed air.
- Loopholes for weapons and, in fact, the arsenal itself in the form of a Kel-Tec P11 pistol, a Ruger AC556 automatic carbine, a Magnum revolver and a Barret M82 large-caliber sniper rifle, from which, if you wish, you can shoot down a combat helicopter.
- Fans, air conditioner, gas mask, as well as food and water supplies for a comfortable stay in an almost sealed cabin.
As the creator of Killdozer himself wrote in one of his notes, "Sometimes reasonable men must be able to act unreasonably."
On June 4, 2004, Marvin John Hemeyer got into the cockpit of a tracked monster and, using a makeshift crane on a remote control, lowered the last armored box, which had immured it inside, onto the chassis. It was already impossible to get out on his own, and Marvin was not going to. After checking with a pre-compiled list of goals, which included all the people who in one way or another had a hand in his eviction, at 14:30 he drove out of the garage right through the wall, without even using its gate. There was no need to worry about this, because in the queue for lynching Hemeyer was expected: the entire cement plant, including the plant management building and production workshops, the office of the gas company, the bank building, the city administration, the fire department and the warehouse, the editorial office of the local newspaper, which poured mud on Marvin in their articles, as well as several residential buildings that belonged to the mayor and members of the city council, in total - 13 objects. It is noteworthy that the businessman who entered the warpath did not fall into a battle rage, as one might expect, but carefully controlled the destruction, firstly, destroying only the property of those who, in his opinion, deserved it, and secondly, without demolishing the carriers walls that could cause buildings to collapse and bury the bulldozer under their rubble.
Of course, the police immediately raised the alarm: all roads were immediately blocked and fifteen hundred residents were evacuated, and local rangers and a SWAT squad came out to confront Himeyer. True, at least some serious anti-tank weapon had nowhere to come from in such small town like Granby, so all the lawyers could do was shoot at the fifty-ton armored bulldozer with service pistols and rifles, periodically throwing flash-banging grenades under the tracks, which had little more than zero effect. There was even one gallant sergeant who decided to play Rambo - he managed to get on the bulldozer on the move and throw a gas grenade into the exhaust pipe, but in this case, the prudent Marvin equipped it with a grate, so that the pipe burst, but it was the only damage caused bulldozer until its radiator was damaged by a stray bullet (and even this did not affect the machine's performance in any way). But Marvin Himeyer used his weapon only for defensive purposes, and deliberately shooting higher than the police in order to keep them at a distance. Despite the terrible appearance and arsenal of the bulldozer, he did not suffer from the hands of its driver no one people in the city.
And yet, the end was inevitable. No matter how hard Marvin tried to be as careful as possible in the demolition of buildings, a few hours after the start of the revenge, another small wholesale store nevertheless collapsed, the bulldozer got stuck and stalled. For two hours the police were afraid to approach him, and then all night long without much success they tried to open the cabin with the help of plastids and an autogen, so when they nevertheless managed to get inside, they found Marvin Hemeyer for half a day as having shot himself.
The Governor of Colorado estimated the damage to the city at $ 5 million and to the plant at $ 2 million, noting that "Granby looks like a tornado swept through him."
The American media, although they talked about what happened, still did not pay enough attention to the story of the persecuted businessman, describing the events in Granby rather restrained and sparingly. On the whole, it is understandable: it would be completely unprofitable for the state to praise such protests. Although if you think about it, analyze the situation and assess the consequences, it turns out that Chimeier did not do anything outstanding: thanks to the property insurance system, the plant reimbursed its losses and resumed work in just ten days, the rest also received appropriate material compensation. The fact that no one was hurt in the process of his lynching may be a happy coincidence, because in 11 of the 13 buildings he demolished until the last moment there were people, and if Marvin did not hit anyone during defensive shooting, this does not mean yet, that he was not aiming.
Ultimately, the city survived this "tornado", recovered from the destruction and continued its quiet existence, and those who from the very beginning were the source of Hemeyer's headache, either alive to this day, or died later, a natural death. Making a cornered entrepreneur a hero of his time, who found the only way to claim his rights in such a radical form, or consider him an irresponsible unbalanced psycho who put the lives of hundreds of people at risk is everyone's personal choice, and The kaliningrad room hopes you make it yourself.
The tragic story of Marvin Hemeyer, a fifty-two-year-old welder who lived in Granby for only a few years, excited not only the United States, but the whole world. Now this act is considered as a spontaneous action by an antiglobalist. Marvin Hemeyer is America's last hero. So he was dubbed by journalists for intransigence and uncompromising struggle against a corrupt state system.
Biography
Marvin Himayer was born on October 28, 1951. He graduated from school in 1968. A year later he went to serve in the US Air Force. On March 17, 1971, he was sent to fight in Vietnam. There he served at the air base as a senior aviator. After 4 years, he was demobilized, and he returned to his homeland, in Friends of Marvin describe his character in different ways. Some describe him as a nice and friendly guy, while others consider him unreliable, too suspicious and dangerous.
Adherent of the legalization of gambling
Despite the fact that Hemeyer did not live in the town of Granby for long, he managed to make both friends and enemies. His character was highly controversial. Take, for example, the case when, as the owner of a silencer repair shop, he once threatened his client to kill her husband if she did not pay him for the repair.
His acquaintances said that if you have a friend, then it is better not to find Marvin, but if he decides that you are an enemy, then it is difficult to imagine a more dangerous enemy than him.
Conflict situation
The life story of Marvin Hemeyer in the town of Granby at first did not bode well for anything tragic. Until the cement plant, at the walls of which his workshop was located, decided to expand. The fact is that not far from Gramby was the Aspen winter resort. Millionaires love to come there, and each of them wants to have their own home there. The fashion for winter cottages provoked a construction boom, as a result of which the demand for cement increased.
In 2001, the city authorities and special commission approved the construction of Mountain Park's new cement plant. After that, the owners of the enterprise began to buy up nearby land plots. Their methods, to put it mildly, were not always legal.
The cement company paid an average of 50 thousand dollars for each of the plots, but Hemeyer refused to sell his land at that price and asked for 270 thousand. When the buyers agreed, he raised the price to 500 thousand, and then to 1 million. Here are the owners decided to find a lawsuit on him.
Last straw
This is where the scandalous story of Marvin Hemeyer begins with the owners of a cement plant. According to the territorial plan approved by the city authorities, the company cut off the only road leading to the welder's workshop. Marvin filed an application with the court to appeal this decision, but he lost. He wanted to get permission to install a sewage system, but the owner of the land refused him.
Seeing such a disrespectful attitude towards himself on the part of the official authorities, he buys a decommissioned killdozer for himself. Marvin Hemeyer personally repaired the engine and decided to independently build another road to his workshop, bypassing the factory territories. But here, too, he was disappointed, since the city administration also forbade him to do this, and even fined him for the lack of sewage systems for 2.5 thousand dollars. He paid the fine, and attached a note to the receipt with only one word - "cowards."
It seems that the story of Marvin Hemeyer would not have been so sad if the city authorities had not added the last straw to the cup of his patience. When his father died, he went to the funeral, and when he returned a few days later, he found that his water and electricity had been cut off and his workshop had been sealed. In addition, the local bank threatened to take the house away from him, as it allegedly revealed an error in the registration of the mortgage loan.
Preparing for war
As already mentioned, in the spring of 2004, Marvin's father died. His younger brother's wife later recalled that Himeyer behaved a little strangely at the funeral, as if he had come to say goodbye to all his relatives. In addition, it seemed to her that he did not want to leave at all.
Marvin began work on improving his bulldozer almost as soon as he was denied permission to build an access road to his workshop. He drove his tractor, which he planned to use for paving the road, into the garage and began to modify it.
Modernization
At first, Hemeyer decided to strengthen the engine cabin. To do this, he installed a homemade composite armor, which he made from sheets of steel and cement poured between them. After that, he equipped several embrasures around the control center itself, and also installed one video camera in front and one behind, and then displayed their image on the monitors in the cockpit.
Hemeyer Marvin John prepared very carefully, so he transferred a small supply of food and several bottles of water to the tractor cab. He did not forget about the air cylinder, gas mask and weapons. He also had a revolver.
It is assumed that he spent from three months to one and a half years upgrading his bulldozer. Surely Himeyer was amazed by the fact that none of the casual visitors to the workshop was surprised or alarmed to see such a powerful armored vehicle.
Before the war began, Marvin Hemeyer, he specially recorded his message on several cassettes. On them, he left an explanation of his act.
On Friday June 4, he sent all the tapes to his little brother, after which he locked himself in the bulldozer's cab. Using a makeshift remote-controlled crane, the man lowered the armored box onto the chassis. As mentioned earlier, he equipped his tractor with several video cameras and monitors. In addition, in case of their contamination with garbage or dust, the craftsman brought air compressors to them.
At 3 o'clock the same day, Marvin Hemeyer's bulldozer easily broke through the wall of the workshop and crashed into the Mountain Park concrete plant. After these actions, the 911 service was called without ceasing.
Cody Dochev, who witnessed how a huge and unusual armored tractor literally destroys the plant, wanted to intervene. He tried to get into the cockpit of the bulldozer, but they began to fire at him from the embrasures.
In about 10-15 minutes, the buildings of the enterprise were completely destroyed, and several vehicles standing on its territory were destroyed. After that, Hemeyer's car drove onto the highway and rattled towards the city.
At this time, an unusual sight could be observed on the road: a whole line was lined up behind a slowly moving bulldozer, and all with sirens on. One of the police cars tried to block his path, but was crushed like a tin can. Glen Trainor, the sheriff's deputy, managed to climb onto the cab of a riding bulldozer and fire 37 bullets from his service pistol, but it was impossible to pierce such armor.
Granby town
I must say that Chimeyer had a whole list of objects that he planned to destroy. When his car got to ultimate goal, he was already met by the city police. Of course, the employees had no weapons against such a whopper. Since it was impossible to pierce such armor with ordinary cartridges, special forces were called in to help, which tried to undermine the bulldozer. But all attempts to destroy the car and the one sitting in it failed.
All that the police could do in this situation was to warn local residents about the danger that threatened them. Meanwhile, this tragic event was broadcast live on all news TV channels from a helicopter flying over the city.
Despite the fact that it was rather difficult for Marvin to drive such a bulky and clumsy vehicle, he managed to find and destroy his intended targets. And they were the buildings of the city hall and the editorial office of the local newspaper, the house of the former mayor and other buildings. On the way to its targets, the bulldozer destroyed the cars left on the road. Although the damage was significant, none of the people were seriously injured.
Death of the last hero
The police soon got hold of an industrial bulldozer, but the armored Komatsu easily knocked it to the side of the road. Within an hour, Marvin Hemeyer demolished 13 buildings and drove to the next target, the Gamble Equipment. The significant weight of the armor and the damage caused by small arms began to gradually affect the maneuverability of the tractor. In addition, the radiator was punctured and coolant was leaking from it. As a result, the car began to lose power and, breaking through the wall of the supermarket, fell under its own gravity into a small basement. could no longer pull the tractor out of the trap.
After that, a special forces group surrounded the vehicle and someone reported hearing a lone gunshot from the cockpit. The car stalled forever, finally ending its destructive march, which lasted only 2 hours and 7 minutes, causing $ 7 million in damage. Thus ended the story of Marvin John Chimeer.
Consequences
To get inside the cockpit, the special forces used explosives. It was possible to crack the armor only by using. After his 12-hour work, the body of Marvin Hemeyer was removed to the surface. Police found he shot himself with his 375 caliber pistol. Later, it was repeatedly emphasized in all media that Himeyer Marvin John was the only victim. It seems that the journalists tried to cite this fact as proof of his rare ingenuity and heroism.
But, as you know, there were people in the buildings just before the destruction. In addition, he fired at fuel tanks, and this could lead to large explosions and numerous casualties. Hemeyer also attempted to fill up the wall in one of the buildings, near which there were two police officers.
After the lifeless body was pulled out of the cockpit, several rifles and a list of addresses of enterprises and buildings with the names of their owners were found in it. By the way, all destroyed property was insured, and then in as soon as possible restored. But the cement plant never recovered from the destruction, the owners felt that they needed to get rid of it and sold it.
Marvin Hemeyer is America's last hero. So the journalists dubbed him. Today in the United States there is a group of people who literally idolize him for his courage, intransigence and uncompromising struggle against a corrupt state system.
Marvin Hemeyer was a welder, owner of a muffler repair shop in Granby. And Marvin was out of luck with the neighbors. The Mountain Park cement plant began to expand and actively buy up land from residents. The owners of the plant made a preliminary agreement with Hemeyer, but at the last moment he raised the price: from 250 thousand dollars, first to 375 thousand, and then to a million. Obviously, he did not want to sell anything, but wanted to continue to patch up the mufflers.
At some point, the owners of the plant began to sue Chimeier, trying to explain to justice that the plant brings good, justice and jobs to the city, and Chimeyer, who at 52 had neither a wife nor children, is not particularly needed by anyone. Then the plant bought up all the land around Marvin's estate, and now no one could bring him a muffler for repairs. The plant cut off all communications for him, including the sewerage system, and the city authorities quite rightly fined Biryuk for unsanitary conditions - he could not run a pipe on foreign soil.
Himeyer struggled languidly for two years. His hour came on June 4, 2004. On this day, an armored bulldozer drove out into the street.
Hemeyer was a real welder and a born engineer - well, or the plant's management did not think to cut his Internet cable. He took a regular bulldozer and welded an armored box for it. He calculated the armor with a margin. Each of its sheets consisted of two plates of half-inch (12.7 mm) steel, between which there was a cement pad. There were only four holes in his "tank" - two loopholes in the front and two in the back. Already in the bulldozer, Himeyer, using a makeshift remote-controlled crane, lowered the box of armor onto the bulldozer - he did not expect to get out of it. He had two rifles with him - one huge, caliber .50 (12.7 mm), the second - a hunting "small", and a revolver of 357 caliber. He carefully prepared: he had video cameras and monitors for review, and compressors were connected to the cameras to clean them of dust.
Then everything was very scary. The bulldozer was moving slowly, but there was no way to stop it. He smashed the plant and drove into the city, rolled around the town hall, the bank, the office of the local newspaper campaigning against him, the judge's house (the judge himself had already died, but his widow lived in the house), and demolished other buildings, only thirteen.
Why do we believe that 52-year-old redneck welder Marvin Hemeyer is the heir to 35-year-old vagabond and madman John Rambo? Both of them were driven by the inhabitants of the small town, who put the common good above the rights of the individual. They both went crazy and reacted in a way that probably shouldn't have been. They both did their best not to kill anyone: all deaths in the movie "First Blood" are accidental, and Hemeyer did not even scratch anyone at all: he continuously fired from his artillery, but only over their heads to scare off the cops. The sheriff and his deputies could not cope with both of them, and the National Guard had to be called.
And as in the case of Rambo, no one could stop Chimeyera. The bulldozer got stuck when Hemeyer tried to demolish the supermarket, but they couldn't get Marvin out. He fired back for a while, then stopped. Then the police brought the autogen and opened the bulldozer in which the dead Marvin Himeyer was lying: he shot himself.
Spontaneous anarchists of all stripes immediately demanded to erect a monument to him in his homeland - an armored bulldozer would perfectly fit for this role. Neither the authorities nor the locals, of course, even considered this option - the bulldozer, along with the armor, was handed over for scrap, at several different reception points and with all precautions being taken so that the remnants of the revenge tank were not taken away for souvenirs.
The locals refused to consider Rambo-Chimeyer a hero. First, not everyone believed that he really did everything in order not to hurt anyone. There were people in the buildings that he demolished, and only the low speed of the bulldozer and the sheriff's prompt actions - for example, the timely evacuation of the population - made it possible to avoid human casualties. In the library of the town hall, which Himeyer destroyed, there were classes for children. The avenger shot at the National Guardsmen and the owner of the cement plant, who was trying to stop the bulldozer. In addition, he tried to detonate the cylinders with liquefied gas with shots; if he succeeded, the police and residents of the surrounding houses would have died.
The hero in this situation was Deputy Sheriff Glen Trainer, who at some point jumped on the bulldozer and tried to find some hole to shoot at it and stop the monster. He, in particular, fired at the exhaust pipe brought out to the roof and even threw a grenade there. The grenade was a flash bang and did not do any harm to the bulldozer.
Hemeyer did not kill anyone, but caused damage, according to various estimates, at 4-5 million dollars. The plant then closed and sold the hard-won land. The town raised money for restoration by subscription, but already without new jobs, taxes and gifts from the alleged city-forming enterprise. Nobody even discussed the idea of making the city a place of tourist pilgrimage for anarchists and putting a Chimeier bulldozer on the main square.
But on the other hand, John James Rambo was unlikely to be very popular in the city of Hope, and certainly no one would use the ruins of a sports and weapons store, blown up by a crazy Green Beret, as a local attraction.
STORIES
Marvin Hemeyer - America's last hero
This story has a sad ending. The inconspicuous town of Granby, Colorado, became known as the final resting place of the last American hero - Marvin Hemeyer (October 28, 1951 - June 4, 2004).
In short, a 52-year-old welder, Marvin Heemeyer, lived in Granby, fixing car mufflers and not touching anyone. Until the local Mountain Park cement plant decided to expand. Marvin's small workshop was closely adjacent to a cement plant, which began to force Hemeyer and other neighbors to sell their land plots.
People are small and weak, and corporations are big and strong, so soon, in an unequal struggle, all the neighbors of the plant surrendered and ceded their land plots to him. But not Chimeyer. He officially bought his land for a workshop and a shop at an auction several years ago for pretty decent money. To do this, he sold his stake in a large car service in Denver and therefore was not going to part with his legal property. The factory owners could not acquire its land, although they tried to do it by hook or by crook.
Desperate to resolve the issue amicably, Marvin began to persecute. Since all the land around the Khimeyer's workshop already belonged to the plant, all communications and the entrance to the house were blocked. Marvin decided to pave a different road, and even bought a decommissioned Komatsu D355A-3 bulldozer for this, having restored the engine on it in his workshop.
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. Hemeyer tried to restore justice by suing Mountain Park, but he lost the legal battle.
Several times he was run over by the retail tax authority, fire department and sanitary inspection, which issued a $ 2,500 fine for the fact that in his workshop there was "a tank that did not meet sanitary standards." Marvin could not connect to the sewer to drain the sewage from the tank, since the land on which the ditch was to be dug also belonged to the plant, and the plant was not going to give him such permission. Marvin paid the fine by attaching a short note to the receipt when he sent it: "Cowards."
Some time later, his father died (March 31, 2004). Marvin went to bury him, and while he was away, they cut off the light, water and sealed his workshop. After that, he closed in the workshop for several months and practically no one saw him.
All this time, Hemeyer, disenchanted with the vaunted American justice, was completing the creation of a weapon of retaliation - an armored bulldozer. He sheathed his Komatsu with 12mm steel sheets lined with a centimeter layer of cement. Equipped with TV cameras with image display on monitors inside the cab. Equipped cameras with lens cleaning systems in case of blinding dust and debris. The prudent Marvin stocked up on food, water, a gas mask and weapons (Barrett M82 rifle, Ruger AC556 carbine, Magnum revolver with cartridges). With the help of a remote control, he lowered an armored box onto the chassis, locking himself inside. In order to lower this armor shell onto the bulldozer's cab, Hemeyer used a makeshift crane. “Lowering it, Hemeyer realized that after that he would not get out of the car,” police experts said.
Marvin compiled a list of targets in advance - objects belonging to those whom he saw fit to take revenge on. To begin with, he drove through the territory of the plant, carefully demolishing the plant management building, production workshops and in general everything to the last barn. Then he moved around the town. I removed the facades from the houses of the members of the city council. Demolished the building of the bank, which tried to put pressure on him through early repayment of the mortgage loan. He destroyed the buildings of the gas company, which refused to refuel his kitchen gas cylinders after the fine, the city hall, the offices of the city council, the fire department, the warehouse, several residential buildings that belonged to the mayor of the city. Dug up the local newspaper office and the public library. In short, Marvin demolished everything that had anything to do with the local authorities, including their private homes. Moreover, he showed good awareness of who owns what. The houses of other residents of the town were not touched by Marvin.
Of course, they tried to stop him. First, the local sheriff with assistants. Then the local police, using revolvers and shotguns. A local SWAT squad was raised on alert. Then the forest rangers. SWAT had grenades, rangers had assault rifles. Some particularly dashing sergeant jumped from the roof onto the hood of the bulldozer and tried to throw a stun grenade into the exhaust pipe, but the son of a bitch Himeyer, as it turned out, welded the grate into it, so the only thing that the bulldozer lost as a result was the pipes itself. The driver's tear gases were not taken - the monitors could be seen in the gas mask. All attempts to stop the bulldozer were in vain.
Chimeyer actively fired back through the embrasures cut through the armor. Not a single person was hurt by his fire, because he shot much higher than their heads, in other words, into the sky, because he did not want innocent victims, but simply wanted to scare the security forces so that they would not bother him too much. He succeeded: the policemen no longer dared to approach him. In total, counting the gamekeepers, about 40 of them had gathered by that time. The bulldozer took more than 200 hits from everything the policemen had - from service revolvers to M-16s and grenades. They also tried to stop him with a hefty scraper (earth moving machine). However, Komatsu had no trouble shoving the scraper into the front of the store. The car filled with explosives on the way of Chimeyer also did not give the desired result. The only achievement of the police in their attempts to counteract Marvin was the bulldozer's radiator, punctured by a rebound - however, as the experience of quarrying 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 the federal highway number 40 leading to Denver (the blocking of the federal highway was especially shocking for everyone).
To the pile, Marvin decided to tear down the small wholesale store "Gambles". The bulldozer was ironing the ruins of a department store and stopped. In the sudden silence, steam whistled furiously from the punctured radiator. The bulldozer was covered with debris from the roof, it got stuck and stalled.
At first, the police were afraid for a long time to approach the Hemeyer 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 were afraid of the last trap that Marvin could arrange for them. When the armor was finally blown through with an autogenous blowtorch, Marvin was already dead. The last patron Marvin kept for himself. He was not going to fall into the clutches of his enemies alive.
The consequences of the war Marvin accurately described the governor of Colorado: "the city looks like a tornado swept through it." The city was really damaged by $ 5,000,000, the plant - by $ 2,000,000. Given the small scale of the town, this meant almost complete destruction. The plant never recovered from the attack and sold the area along with the ruins.
Then the investigation began. It turned out that Hemeyer's creation was so reliable that it could withstand not only the explosion of grenades, but also an artillery shell. At first they wanted to put the Bulldozer on a pedestal and make it a local landmark, but most insisted on melting it down.
In humans, this incident evokes extremely mixed emotions. On the one hand, antisocial destructive actions are usually judgmental. But on the other hand, Hemeyer's act has won approval from many people in the United States and around the world. Marvin Hemeyer began to be called "the last American hero" who challenged the social injustice that drowns little people in their unequal struggle with big corporations and the state machine. Many consider Marvin Hemeyer's act worthy of admiration, because he rightly fought for his rights: in his little war, only the property of his offenders suffered and not a single person died.
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