The Killdozer
Last week was the fourth anniversary of the Killdozer, pictured below.
I don’t actually remember this at the time, so was intrigued to read the background. Basically a Marvin Heemeyer was peeved with the local Council over zoing dispute so he created the Killdozer – a bulldozer with steel and concrete.
The armor was one foot thick in places with with concrete sandwiched between steel sheets. This made it resistant to both small arms fire and even most explosives.
The Killdozer was armed with a .50 caliber semi-automatic Barrett M82 sniper rifle pointing out to the rear, a semi-auto FN FNC assault-rifle pointing out to the front, a .223 Ruger Mini-14 to the right, a 9mm Kel-Tec P-11 semi-auto pistol and a .357 magnum revolver.
Heemeyer did $7 million of damage destroying 13 buildings. Finally it got stuck and he killed himself. It took 12 hours for people to cut through the armor to get his body out.
I can’t help wondering how big one would need to take on the Beehive 
June 8th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Perhaps you’d like to follow up on that “fun” comment with something about Robert Kennedy?
[DPF: I wondered who would be first to whine. No-one died due to the Killdozer and one can appreciate a vehicle, even if not appreciate what it was used for.]
June 8th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Lighten up Jafa.
Clearly the killdozer is to building what according to Dr Norman hippos are to waterways.
Of course an Australian PhD in politics makes one an expert in hippo dung.
June 8th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
“12 hours for people to cut through the armor to get his body out” presumably this means he had sealed himself inside the “Killdozer” with reinforced concrete and didn’t intend to survive ?
[DPF: yes although he did have food and water for a seige fo a few days]
June 8th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbG9i1oGPA
June 8th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Your comments about the Beehive really make sense, considering you want more MPs and no election before November!
June 8th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
DPF: “I wondered who would be first to whine.”
Thought you could take that as a given.
“No-one died due to the Killdozer and one can appreciate a vehicle, even if not appreciate what it was used for.”
Probably a little sensative. have vivid memories of looking out from my Beehive office over a sea of angy farmers’ faces to Molesworth St, where they were hanging effigies of Roger Douglas from the lampposts, and feeling distinctly uneasy.
June 8th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Damn, McCain could use that to make a point.
McCain trying to say he is a youthful old man, he looks
eighty two in this video.
Bloody unkind of Obama wanting to debate him sixteen hours
a day seven days a week, poor old bugger would miss his
afternoon naps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aMDJP4VxY4
June 8th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
That’s nothing compared to the Hikoi of Hope – angry priests!
June 8th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Maybe that’s what they thought Shane Ardern was going to do, so labour charged him. Only National Ministers get charged with offences.
June 8th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Jafapete – pity you couldn’t learn to write decent English. (Why were the farmers feeling uneasy?) For your information, there were at least a dozen farmer suicides during that year. You are bloody lucky you had a cushy job in the beehive at the time. Are you still there?
June 8th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Adolf: I was in a hurry when I wrote that, as the typos indicate quite clearly. But, well spotted.
Yes, the removal of the subsidies was brutal, but that was largely the responsibility of one Roger Douglas, who is idolised by many regulars on this blog. It is they who might like to contemplate the tragic consequences of the crash or crash through approach Douglas took. Alternatively, anybody who supported Muldoon might like to consider who bears responsibility for getting NZ and NZ agriculture into the position where some degreee of shock in the farming sector was inevitable.
As for me, I got out of the Beehive at the earliest opportunity and never looked back. When I consider the calibre of some of the factotums (what’s the plural?) that work there now, I have wondered whether I shouldn’t offer my services, but then I think of the weather…
June 8th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
>largely the responsibility of one Roger Douglas
You mean he didn’t ask the Labour Government Cabinet, which included Helen Clark and Phil Goff? Surely that’d be unconstitutional?
June 8th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
At the time agricultural subsidies were removed, Douglas also devalued the NZ dollar by 20%. In those days of a fixed exchange rate, that was not an unreasonable position to justify. What caused the grief was that Douglas subsequently floated the dollar and it returned to the pre-devaluation level within about twelve months.
Subsidies were a bad thing for farmers, although they could not recognise it at the time. The subsidies simply enabled them to pay increased prices for their purchases when consumer resistance would have been a better mechanism. Of course the country was better off with the levels of agricultural production, and the servicing industries blossomed with the unfettered ability to raise prices. The farmers were the suckers taking the bad publicity over the subsidies, when they themselves were no better off financially, but everyone else in the community was.
It is ironic that the current situation has farmers again incurring the displeasure of the public, whilst the trickle-down effects of their better returns is maintaining a buoyant economy for those servicing the agricultural sector, and beyond.
C’est la vie!
June 8th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Mr Farrar the liarbour speaker of the house would whine and refer the Armored bulldozer driver to the police for driving up the steps of parliment, I CAN SEE IT HAPPENING ,with food ,petrol ,and housing prices NEW ZEALAND will unravel as total stress sets in. I DONT THINK IM TALKING SHIT, watch the news,craps going to happen ,believe me
June 8th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
‘Heemeyer did $7 million of damage destroying 13 buildings. Finally it got stuck and he killed himself. It took 12 hours for people to cut through the armor to get his body out.’
Filed under ‘Fun Things’.
Where’s the fun in that?
June 8th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
The Killdozer message is that if you piss the average Joe off enough he is still enterprising enough to give authority a nasty kick in the balls. Future governments should take careful note and remember Joe will always have the element of surprise.
June 8th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I don’t think Killdozer would be much use in flushing Dear Leader out. Prehaps the yanks will come to the party and lend us one of those bunker busting bombs. I only see one flaw in the plan, do we have an aircraft capable of dropping said bomb or could it fit on the bottom of a topdressing plane as I know a few that would jump at the chance to deliver said package.
June 8th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Jafapete
You mean the removal of agricultural subsidies which meant that poor people weren’t subsidising farmers lifestyles?
The removal of subsidies which meant that the taxpayer wasn’t subsidising inefficient and potentially environmetnally damaging farming practises?
The removal of subsidies which resulted in New Zealand farming becoming some of the most efficient and international competative in the world.
…..
Tell me, which subsidies would you put back?
June 9th, 2008 at 12:05 am
All hail Killdozer!
Seriously, Killdozer is significant as it shows that usually, in events like this, no one party is entirely to blame. Marv lost his marbles, the townspeople and newspaper pushed the issue too far and in the end, everyone got burned. Considering that he could have burned down buildings or shot people, he chose a far more memorable and infamous route – and as long as we keep it in perspective, there’s nothing wrong with hailing what is one of the greatest meltdowns in the history of mankind.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:48 am
The Javelin anti tank missiles the NZ army has should be able to knockout something like this, although we wouldn’t be able to afford replacement missiles afterwards.
The real tragedy with the killdozer is that the disgruntled man was able to build the bloody thing without anyone becoming surspicious.
June 9th, 2008 at 7:02 am
What did you have in mind, paradigm? Neighbourhood block inspectors with responsibility for keeping an eye on all in their area for individuals behaving suspiciously and having powers of discretion, entry, questioning and detention?
June 9th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Flashman:
Alledgedly Heemeyer recorded several audio tapes that were recoverred after the incident. He noted how surprised he was that nobody caught him making the thing; especially since it had taken him 1.5 years to make. Also the fact that he suddenly sold alot of his assets to make it, the fact that no one apparently found this odd or knew him well enough to notice the degradation in his personality that would have occured prior to the rampage. Perhaps worst of all, several people did inspect his shed during the last few months of construction (he had sold it to them under the provisor that he could keep the use of it for 6 months) and failled to notice the uncovered bulldozer complete with heavy armour plates and protruding firearms.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I am involved in a dispute with Auckland CC Alas this article has caused me great conflict Should I or shouldnt I How big a dozer would I need to topple the ACC building?