This is actually real. Story of the Killdozer
June 4, 2004
When Marvin Heemeyer of Granby, Colorado, reached a dead-end in his fight with the local zoning commission, the logical response would have been to petition them once again and await a future reply from them. After all, Marvin Heemeyer was known to have been a logical man, so it was expected that he would have taken a logical approach.
Instead, Marvin Heemeyer went home, outfitted his Komatsu D355A bulldozer with armored plates, a layer of concrete, and bulletproof plastic, and drove it through the town in a rampage, knocking down 13 buildings and causing $7 million worth of damage with his makeshift “killdozer.”
I'm always amazed how much this story changes every time I check in on it.
The first rendition I heard, he was selling his land to a company that was going to build a mall. That was going to be a big boon for his automotive & welding shop, as it would bring a lot of new business to the area. As the sale was nearing completion, the buyer revealed they weren't actually going to build a mall, instead they were building a concrete plant. That would have the opposite result for Heemeyer's business, so he balked and increased the price. The buyer decided to play hardball and instead used the city council to put pressure on him, which they did by cutting his sewage lines & declaring his property uninhabitable.
That's a very different story than what was posted above. And it's fascinating how slowly the narrative has changed. The 'build a mall' portion disappeared first. Then the sewage lines were never there, he was always supposed to build a septic tank. The latest addition I see is now he has firearms as well and is shooting at power transformers. I wonder what will be adapted in the next cycle.