Killdozer… how have I only just heard about this..

Having listened to a podcast about this on saturday night (“Stuff you should know” podcast) it’s really grabbed my attention..
Started watching “Tread” on now TV – my OH found it too boring so i’ll go back to that..

But.. looking at photos and video clips of the rampage, as well as photos of the inside of the dozer – fascinating stuff.

Anyone here heard about the event?- was in 2004.. I guess it triggers a slight morbid fascination, as well as I’m pretty interested in the engineering behind the sheilding etc!

DrP

I remember that, was a very odd event.

I would like to see some better background reporting on these type of events, are the perpetrators actually victims? A few years ago if a postmaster had run amok and taken out a post office, we would of all probably be labelling them a “mad man” but with what we know know, it would be a lot more understandable that someone can be pushed beyond their limits by an unrelenting system that is more interested in protecting itself than justice.

A man with (or had) quite a grudge, it seems!

If you read into the details of what lead up to it Heemeyer was a bit of a tool to put it mildly, kept pushing his luck and trying it on and then couldn’t handle being told that the rules did, in fact, apply to him.

Anyone who works in local government will be wearily familiar with the type.

Of course sober, detailed understanding doesn’t make for many clicks so this hasn’t stopped him from being turned into some kind of right wing libertarian cause célèbre because their analysis of the situation rarely goes deeper than ‘I don’t like paying tax, hence all government bad.’

If everyone behaved like him every district council  in the land would have been bulldozed a hundred times over for entirely justified planning permission refusals.

WhistlinDiesel has done a few videos about it and hasn’t damaged too much stuff in the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgX7N2-dC9A

yeah, I was tipped off into the whistlinD stuff…will have a look later.

According to teh podcast, the dozer was 60 tonne to start with, then had an extra 20 tonne of sheilding..

DrP

And I opened the thread hoping for a reunion and new record announcement 🙁

Yea, I don’t think it made the news much at the time, 24h news hadn’t really taken off yet.

It’s latest surge in popularity is down to the whole MAGA / Don’t Tread On Me / 2nd Amendment crowd.

I remember that quite clearly.

I am actually surprised similar things don’t happen more often they are phenomenal machines.

On a similar “upset that the rules apply to him” note the murder of Harry Collinson is pretty shocking reading. But worth a read for an insight on just how serious some people take fairly mundane disputes.

Looks a lot like “the most moral army in the world”.

Similar (ish) local story here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-30826330

that was a combination of mental illness and planning disputes.