Man in homemade tank destroys small town, helpless police have no way to stop him

Some people throw things when they’re unhappy, others convert their bulldozer into a tank and destroy half their town.

Marvin John Heemeyer chose the latter option after losing a zoning dispute. The outraged welder and auto mechanic outfitted his Komatsu D355A bulldozer with homemade armor plating. Using 5000 psi Quikrete concrete mix layered between sheets of tool steel, Heemeyer covered his cabin, engine, and portions of his tracks with 1 foot thick armor plates. He mounted multiple cameras around the exterior which could be viewed by multiple monitors mounted to the dashboard. This man was so outraged he was willing to destroy a town, but maintained the thoughtful composure to include air jets that would blast dust away from the camera lenses. Now that’s planning ahead!

Heemeyer also added multiple gun ports for his .50 caliber, .308 caliber, and .22 caliber rifles. Once his machine was finished, the rampage began. Local police in Granby, Colorado were completely helpless to stop the improvised tank. The 200+ rounds of ammunition fired at the tank-dozer may as well have been spitballs and the three explosives they planted on the armor did literally jack squat.

Authorities later discovered a homemade remote control crane Heemeyer used to mount the armor hull over his cabin after he was already inside. The disgruntled man clearly had no intention of leaving the tank alive, and his rampage only ended after he died from a self inflicted gunshot wound.