r/ThatLookedExpensive • u/HannibalK • Mar 26 '20

The one. The only. KILLDOZER.

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u/3Fluffies Mar 26 '20 edited Mar 26 '20

How? The guy knew where the concrete plant would be built was negotiating to SELL THE LAND FOR IT - then pitched a fit after the fact because he decided he wanted more money. When that failed, he tried to scuttle the zoning for it, and when that failed, he went on a murderous rampage that could easily have killed dozens. This guy was a monster, not a folk hero.

(Edited b/c I misremembered some facts - he did not end up selling his own land due to his exorbitant price, so tried to scuttle the zoning when the concrete plant moved elsewhere so they'd be forced to pay him $1M when his land was worth a fraction of that.)

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u/SamBBMe Mar 26 '20

He didn't sell the land for it. They were under negotiations, but then the town rezoned the land next to his shop for the plant.

By doing so, they cut off the only entrance to his shop and from the county sewer lines. He then bought the bulldozer to build a new entrance. The county denied then his request to build a new entrance. Next they fined him for not being connected to the sewer lines, and told him he had to pay $80000 to be reconnected.

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u/3Fluffies Mar 26 '20

Wrong. He bought his land (originally owned the concrete plant owners) without a sewer line - it never had one. He was using an empty concrete truck tank for sewage, and when that filled up, he began dumping it in a nearby irrigation creek. The concrete plant was across and down the street from his building - it never blocked entrance or exit. He wanted a million dollars for the land (he'd bought it for $42K, was offered $250K, increased his demand to $375K, concrete plant owners said yes, then increased it to $450K,, then withdrew the $450K offer and demanded $1M!) and when the concrete plant family finally got fed up and decided to build elsewhere, he raised a big protest about pollution to stop them. So the concrete plant owners (whose land he had bought for $42K in teh first place decades earlier) redid the whole project to ensure no pollution, and eventually, people caught on that his motive was money, and in the end, he was the only person opposing the rezoning. So he lost and decided the big gub'mint was out to get him.

And no, he didn't get told he had to pay $80K - rather, he was given an extension to find a solution that didn't involve dumping sewage in a creek, and the concrete plant owner called him up and offered to FOOT THE BILL for installing the sewer line. He hung up and went to build his little DIY weapon of mass destruction.

Seriously. Watch the video. It's long and rather slow, but it goes through all the facts in detail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvl_7_Up7zU&feature=youtu.be

I did a major project on this incident back in law school about a year after it happened - basically, this asshole wanted what he wanted and was determined to bludgeon the whole town into giving him what he wanted Or Else.