One against all: why car mechanic Marvin Himeyer is called the last hero of the United States

Marvin Himeyer — a simple American hard worker, faced with the arbitrariness of a large corporation and city authorities. When it became clear that he would lose in a lawsuit, the man decided to develop a plan of revenge. It cost him his life, but Marvin became known all over the world as a fighter against the system, who at the last moment did not bend under the circumstances, but fought back.

Marvin John Himeyer was born in the United States in 1951. He served in Vietnam as an airfield technician, and after demobilization returned to his homeland, where he and his partners opened an auto repair shop in Denver. In the early 90s, he sold his share and moved to the town of Granby, which had only 2 thousand inhabitants. For 40 thousand dollars, the man bought a small building on the outskirts of the city and opened his own workshop in it, where he repaired car mufflers and assembled snowmobiles.

Marvin Himeyer

Marvin received a military pension, lived by his work, and loved to ride a snowmobile in the mountains in the winter. A few years later, a cement factory was built in Granby, which became the city's main enterprise, and the main part of the population got a job there. In the vicinity of the enterprise there were several small warehouses and workshops, among which was the repair shop of Himeyer.

Granby Town Centre

When the plant needed additional space to launch a new production line, corporate lawyers offered to sell the land to the owners of the plots. All but Himeyer agreed. According to the plant administration, the man was offered 250 thousand dollars, and he agreed to the deal. However, then he asked for 350 thousand, and after a while — a million dollars.

Supporters and friends of Marvin claim that the plant did not want to pay the man and 250 thousand. The administration of the enterprise preferred the harassment of what they considered to be a defenseless car mechanic to a legitimate deal. Himeyer's workshop was surrounded by factory territory, cut off from light, water and sewage. The sewage had to be taken out by wheeled transport, for which Marvin constantly received fines from the local sheriff. The siege lasted for several years, and in 2001 the city administration approved a project to expand the plant.

Granby City Hall

This deprived Himeyer of access to his own workshop. The man tried to appeal the decision in court, but the result was not achieved. Instead, the city "soldered" its resident a fine of 2.5 thousand dollars for another violation. Simple hard worker Marvin John Himeyer endured for a long time. The whole city turned against him. The mayor, the sheriff, and all the local authorities sided with the corporation that had harassed the 52-year-old Vietnam veteran. And then he decided to take revenge.

At an auction of supported equipment, Marvin bought a Komatsu D355A crawler bulldozer. With his help, he wanted to equip the road to the auto repair shop to bypass the plant, but the authorities did not give permission for construction work. Himeyer knew how to work with his hands and in a year and a half turned a bulldozer into an armored personnel carrier.

Komatsu D355A Bulldozer

Marvin welded a box made of two layers of 1.27 cm thick steel. The space between the sheets he filled with concrete, the weight of the structure was a whole ton. The result is an anti-cumulative screen that can protect not only from bullets, but also from the explosion of a grenade. On June 4, 2004, a man drove a bulldozer into his garage, climbed into the cab and lowered the box with a homemade remote crane.

The bulldozer, after Marvin Himeyer worked on it

Himeyer was trapped in the cockpit. He took with him two rifles, a couple of pistols, ammunition, a gas mask, water and beer. For good visibility, he installed several video cameras connected to two displays, and equipped loopholes for firing. At 14: 30, the car mechanic left the garage. Further events went down in history as "the revenge of Himeyer".

First, the bulldozer drove to the factory and rolled out everything that it could get to. The next address was the police station. The Himeyer demolished the building and crushed all the cars in the parking lot with its tracks. So did Mayor Granby. Marvin sent the bulldozer to the city hall and demolished the facade of the building. He destroyed the judge's house and the office of the local newspaper. While Marvin was driving "for guests", he was chased by police cars.

Law enforcement officers fired at the armored car with pistols, but the 9-millimeter caliber against the "sandwich" with steel and concrete armor was powerless. The avenger fired back, but, as the police themselves recalled, did not aim to kill, but only tried to drive the pursuers to a safe distance. During the destruction of a local shopping center, a bullet ricocheted through the radiator of a bulldozer, and the car stalled.

A special forces unit armed with M-16 rifles and grenades arrived at the scene of the rout, but they were also useless. Four dozen police officers did not know how to get Himeyer out of the bulldozer, which opened fire as they approached. The only thing that the authorities did was to evacuate the residents of the town. At 16: 32, the last shot was fired from the bulldozer. The police opened the bulldozer's armor with an autogen and found Himeyer in the cab, who committed suicide.

Marvin put a bullet in his head, his city was in ruins. The armored bulldozer caused $ 5 million in damage to Granby and $ 2 million in damage to the cement plant. On this day, one random person died. The plant received insurance and resumed work 10 days after the incident. In an interview, the new mayor of Granby joked that as a result, the plant in their city still remained, but they finally got rid of Marvin.

While television portrayed Himeyer as a psychopath, the Internet called him the last hero of the United States, who defied the authorities and corporations. A simple car mechanic and army veteran did not put up with the arbitrariness of the authorities. He built a tank in the garage and demolished the city that had abandoned him.

In the cab of the bulldozer

But that didn't make it any easier for his neighbors. Six months later, Marvin's bulldozer was taken apart and sent to landfills. This was supposed to prevent the avenger's supporters from stealing the car parts for souvenirs. In the United States, there is still social tension, which leads to conflicts between the authorities and the people. What are the protests in Ferguson that arose in response to the police killing of unarmed people?