Yesterday, reporters were allowed a close-up look for the first time inside the bulldozer that leveled 13 buildings in Granby, CO on June 4th. The Rocky Mountain News details the items found inside the cab of the 'dozer, and its meticulous construction:

Unopened cans of Slim-Fast, a box of Band-Aids and two plastic jugs of water were beside Marvin Heemeyer in the cab of his armored bulldozer when he pressed the barrel of a .357-caliber Magnum against the roof of his mouth and pulled the trigger.

The space where Heemeyer spent his final hours steering a 60-ton Komatsu D355-A bulldozer on a mission of destruction through downtown Granby was opened to reporters for the first time Thursday. All that's left in the bulldozer's cab now - a back brace, two rolls of paper towels, a pair of locking pliers, two aerosol cans of starter fluid - are items you might find in the average American garage.

But there was nothing average about the planning and craftsmanship that Heemeyer put into preparing his bulldozer for the attack he would launch June 4 that damaged or leveled 13 buildings.

...Heemeyer had managed to weld and place his impenetrable plating so that not one vital piece of the bulldozer's mechanics was vulnerable to gunfire. Lawmen could do little until Heemeyer's bulldozer became wedged in the rear of a Gambles hardware store. Finally immobilized, Heemeyer shot himself.

The bulldozer, which is being stored in a county facility near Fraser, will remain there indefinitely, Johnson said. "We're going to seize it and get ownership of it and then decide," he said. One possibility is to disassemble Heemeyer's handiwork and restore the bulldozer to working condition. As far as selling it as is on eBay or moving it to back to Granby as a tourist attraction, [Grand County Sheriff Rod] Johnson is skeptical. "I certainly wouldn't agree with that," he said. "A year from now, who's going to pay to see that thing?"

The Denver Post also gives readers a peek inside the monster machine:

County officials plan to obtain the machine in civil court, possibly to sell it and give the proceeds to Heemeyer's victims, he said.

Although the contents of Heemeyer's machine give some clues about his strategy, the purpose of other items will remain a mystery, Johnson said. For the most part, Heemeyer's plans showed amazing forethought, [Sheriff Rod Johnson] said.

Receipts for sheet-metal purchases indicate he had a long time to plan. Heemeyer bought the metal more than a year ago, [he] said, [and] the craftsmanship that went into building the nearly impregnable 25-foot-long, 13-foot-high bulldozer was astounding.

"I don't think I could do this in a lifetime," he said.

Perhaps it's no coincidence the Rocky Mountain news is advertising the 2004 Hawgfest alongside the bulldozer article - the headliners for the July 24-25 show in nearby Winter Park include Vince Neil, Eddie Money, Slaughter, RATT, Rick Derringer, ZZ Top and WAR. If that's not tailor-made bulldozer music, I don't know what is...and that bulldozer strikes me as the "ultimate hawg."

---