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Granby business owners and employees got back to work immediately to reopen their shops and offices following the 2004 bulldozer attack

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The destroyed Sky-Hi News office and pressroom is pictured following the bulldozer attack that took place June 4, 2004, in downtown Granby. The office sustained $500,000 in damage, according to Publisher and Editor Patrick Brower, and cost $770,000 to rebuild.
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A disgruntled Granby business owner and Grand Lake resident orchestrated an attack on the town of Granby on June 4, 2004. Businesses, a government building and a home in the small town of fewer than 2,000 residents sustained an estimated $5 million to $10 million in damage. Below, business owners and employees recount their memories of the attack and the rebuilding process in its aftermath.

A hole in the side of a warehouse at The Trash Co. shows where the bulldozer was driven out of the building in which it was built. The perpetrator rented the building from the business owner. (Editor’s note: The year on the photo is incorrect. The image was taken June 5, 2004.)
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The Trash Co.

  • Address: 723 County Road 612
  • Owner: Travis Busse 
  • Damage: 1 building damaged
  • Cost to rebuild: $25,000
  • Year rebuilt: 2005
  • Reason targeted: to remove bulldozer from leased building

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Mountain Park Concrete

  • Address: 804 Granby W. Circle
  • Owner: Cody Docheff 
  • Damage: 1 building damaged, 1 building destroyed
  • Reason targeted: neighboring business feud

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Mountain Parks Electric

  • Address: 321 W. Agate Ave.
  • Owner: co-op
  • Damage: 1 office building and garages damaged, electrical transformers located near Independent Propane Co. damaged
  • Reason targeted: employees served on Granby Town Board

What do you remember from that day?

I was working in the front office at Mountain Parks Electric in Granby when one of my co-workers from our Kremmling location called. He said he had heard there was some shooting going on at the cement plant behind our building and that he was concerned. I told our manager, and we locked the doors at first. Then we decided we better evacuate the building. Several employees were able to get in their cars and drive off, but several of us had to go back in our building because a strange-looking bulldozer had come into our parking lot, and we realized this was where the shooting was coming from.

We ran to the back of the building, and we were not sure what to do. We were considering running out the backdoor, but since we could not see where the bulldozer was, we did not know what direction the shots would be fired. An officer yelled that he would tell us when to run. He waved us to run up the hill behind our building when the bulldozer had turned around. We got down into the cement drainage ditch, and then he told us to wait before we ran up the rest of the hill to the road. After an ambulance backed down the access road, he told us to run and get in the ambulance. The ambulance drove us out of there very quickly.

We were dropped off at the park. One of our co-workers lived across the street from the park, and we all went inside her house. From her window, we watched the bulldozer tear down what was once the town hall and library.  

What did you do in the aftermath of the attack?

We were driven back to the office, and we saw that the front of the building was destroyed.

We came in that weekend and rearranged the office to make spots for the front office staff that had lost all their office space. We eventually decided to put everyone in the kitchen together since all our desks would fit there well.  

It was strange and awkward at first to be back at work, but we all eventually adjusted. My main emotion was thankfulness that nobody in the community had been killed.

— Lindsay McCann, Mountain Parks Electric member services representative 

Damage is pictured at Maple Street Builders on June 5, 2004.
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Maple Street Builders (Now Colorado Log Builders)

  • Address: 229 W. Agate Ave. (no longer a brick-and-mortar business) 
  • Owner: George Davis (business owner), Bob and Bonnie Haddock (building owners) 
  • Damage: 1 office building and 1 work truck damaged, totaling $12,000 to $14,000
  • Reason targeted: George Davis didn’t sign a petition opposing concrete plant

What do you remember from that day?

I had a flatbed truck that was sitting in front of my office. The bulldozer pushed my flatbed truck sideways right into the office. 

Undersheriff Glen Trainor was riding on top of the bulldozer, and he told me what had happened. It was creeping up the side of U.S. Highway 40, and Glen was on top of it because he was trying to figure out a way to stop it. Glen was ready to jump off because he thought the bulldozer was just going to mow down the building. Instead, it just pushed my truck into the building and backed out.

What did you do in the aftermath of the attack?

During the days, I just pretty much took inventory of what I had, so I could file it with my insurance company. 

I rented the office space, so I talked to the owner of the building, and pretty much we had to rebuild because it would’ve been a worthless piece of property and the damage wasn’t that bad. 

The estimated damage was around $12,000 to $14,000. The most expensive item damaged was a printer, which was used to print blueprints and was estimated to cost $6,000. Two computers were also damaged. 

I remember calling State Farm after hours, and I got this call from Florida, and the guy goes “Are you out in Granby?”

And I go, “Yeah”

He goes, “I’m watching it on

CNN right now.”

They had the helicopters in the air, and that hit the news big time. So he knew exactly what was going on.

He said, “Yeah, we’ll figure it out. … You are insured for your office stuff, and you have your truck on a separate policy.” 

It didn’t cost me or the property owner anything. Insurance helped cover the rebuilding costs. The labor was donated by contractors and citizens from the community. The materials were donated by the two lumberyards: Highland Lumber and Alpine Lumber. I really appreciated the help from the community. I thanked everyone and continued on with my business.

— George Davis, Maple Street Builders owner

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Granby Town Hall

  • Address: 13 E. Jasper Ave. (town hall now at Zero W. Jasper Ave., library now at 55 Zero St.)
  • Owner: town of Granby
  • Damage: 1 building destroyed (town hall and library), park trees and infrastructure destroyed
  • Cost to rebuild: $3.2 million (town hall), $3.9 million (library)
  • Year rebuilt: 2006 (library), 2007 (town hall)
  • Reason targeted: government regulations

What do you remember from that day?

The Town Hall — which included the town manager’s office, the finance director’s office, the town clerk/planning office, the deputy clerk/treasurer’s office and the recreation department — was destroyed along with the Board of Trustees boardroom and Grand County Library in the basement.

What did you do in the aftermath of the attack?

We opened to the public on Monday, June 7, at 9 a.m. and resumed business as usual with limitations.

Due to the incident, the Granby Police Department was created.

— Deb Hess, Granby town clerk

What do you remember from that day?

The destruction affected virtually the entire length of the commercial district of Granby, from the Docheff cement plant to the Thompson residence. From the vicinity of the latter, shots fired from the bulldozer attempted to ignite the propane bulk storage tanks downhill from the senior housing.

What did you do in the aftermath of the attack?

We decided to rebuild almost immediately. As mayor, it was my responsibility to chair meetings of the board of trustees for continuing the business of the town, along with planning for the reconstruction of Town Hall. 

I also aided with fundraising efforts to help compensate residents for their losses not covered by insurance. I worked closely with Sharon Brenner, executive director of the Granby Chamber of Commerce, and the Colorado Municipal League. Towns and cities that were members of the league donated thousands of dollars.

Anti-government sentiment began right away, with lies published and broadcast, which distorted the reality of what caused the rampage and, with some degree of success, painted Marvin Heemeyer as some kind of martyr who had been persecuted into taking action to “right the wrongs of the town.” This idea still has traction today, unfortunately.

— Ted Wang, former Granby mayor

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Liberty Savings Bank (Now Blue Federal Credit Union)

  • Address: 129 E. Agate Ave.
  • Owner: Liberty Savings Bank (now Blue Federal Credit Union)
  • Damage: 1 building damaged
  • Reason targeted: employee served on Granby Town Board

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Sky-Hi News

  • Address: 424 E. Agate Ave.
  • Owner: Johnson Media (now Swift Communications)
  • Damage: 1 building destroyed, totaling $500,000
  • Cost to rebuild: $770,000
  • Year rebuilt: 2005
  • Reason targeted: news coverage

What do you remember from that day?

I was in the business building covering the event when the Killdozer struck the building. I was with the editor of the Winter Park Manifest, Harry Williamson.

The entire building was destroyed. The bulldozer poked into the front and sides of the building in an estimated eight movements during which the blade of the dozer pierced the walls of the building, entering at a distance of about 8 feet each time it struck the building.

What did you do in the aftermath of the attack?

We scrambled and moved our editorial and production offices to our small location in Winter Park at the Winter Park Manifest offices. 

Then we negotiated a deal with the East Grand School District to lease the old middle school building (now demolished but at the location of the soccer dome) for our editorial and production offices and for the printing press. We moved into that location in the middle of July and stayed there until June 2005. We printed the newspapers at Intermountain Color in Denver. We did not miss a single publication day.

Our insurance helped pay for the lion’s share of the rebuild, and in the process we added three apartments upstairs in the new building that were not there at the time of the attack.

The losses we experienced above and beyond what the insurance covered amounted to about $500,000. This is for business lost at the time of the rampage and for long-term business lost when printing press customers we had, who printed at our plant, went to other printers. Those customers did not come back, so we lost long term a significant amount of printing and production business. Even though we had business interruption coverage, the loss of those customers was not covered by insurance.

— Patrick Brower, Sky-Hi News editor/publisher

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Xcel Energy (Now Cabin Works and K-9 Dog Grooming & Self Wash)

  • Address: 625 E. Agate Ave. (now 538 E. Jasper Court)
  • Owner: Xcel Energy (business owner), Larry and Gary Thompson (building owners)
  • Damage: 1 truck, 1 building and garages destroyed
  • Reason targeted: building owned by the Thompson family

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Thompson and Sons Excavation

  • Address: 637 E. Jasper Court
  • Owners: Larry and Gary Thompson
  • Damage: 1 building, 1 home and 1 storage yard destroyed, totaling $900,000
  • Cost to rebuild: $1.5 million
  • Year rebuilt: 2004
  • Reason targeted: The late Dick Thompson, former Granby mayor, founded the business, and the late Ron Thompson (son of Dick) had served as mayor and on the Granby Sanitation District board

What do you remember from that day?

We were working up in Grand Lake when we were contacted that our business was under attack. We drove down to the shop and watched as the destruction happened. The bulldozer pushed heavy equipment into the side of the shop, leaving a huge hole. It destroyed both the shop and the outdoor storage yard. 

The bulldozer also turned on the home of our mom (82-year-old Thelma Thompson). The home is located right across the street from the Thompson and Sons shop.

The attack leveled the house and two detached garages, damaged one-third of our shop and destroyed equipment. It also destroyed part of the old Xcel building, which we owned.

The total estimated damage was $900,000. We finished rebuilding in December 2004 at a cost of $1.5 million.

About two months before the attack, we were accosted while digging for a foundation near Marvin Heemeyer’s house in Grand Lake. We were confused why he was berating our family and demanding that we owed him money.

What did you do in the aftermath of the attack?

We kept our business operating, and we rebuilt because this is our home and will always be our home!

It was a miracle that no one was hurt. Our family’s main concern was for our mom, who had been napping inside the house. She was driven away to safety just before the house was attacked. We were mystified that someone could carry out such destruction on our family. 

The community came together to help us rebuild our mom’s home, and since we’re excavators, we pitched in to help with the rebuilding process for the Sky-Hi News building on East Agate Avenue. With our machines, we demolished the rubble left after the attack.

— Larry and Gary Thompson, Thompson and Sons Excavation owners

Independent Propane Co. is pictured after the attack.
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Independent Propane Co.

  • Address: 880 E. Agate Court
  • Owners: Independent Propane Co.
  • Damage: none
  • Reason targeted: believed to be an effort to cause additional damage to the town by igniting gas tanks

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Gambles (Now High Country Appliances)

  • Address: 455 E. Agate Ave.
  • Owners: Casey and Rhonda Farrell (now Holly Wood)
  • Damage: 1 building destroyed (Kopy Kat printing next door damaged)
  • Year rebuilt: 2012
  • Reason targeted: Casey Farrell served on planning commission

What do you remember from that day?

When we were evacuated from Gambles, we went to Innsbrook in Silvercreek to a friend’s house. By the time we were there, Casey Farrell felt he knew who was in the bulldozer and knew we were among the people Marvin Heemeyer would like to destroy. We listened to the real time description of what was going on by radio and watched it on television. 

When we returned to our home in Granby, we went on foot to see the Gambles building. The bulldozer had gone in the front of the building and down the west side, causing the roof to collapse. The building was a total loss. 

What did you do in the aftermath of the attack?

When we went back to our home later that evening, our message machine was filled with messages from our community offering help and condolences. 

The first thing that had to happen was to try to remove important documents from the building, board the front of the building up and put a fence around the destruction of our business. 

There were so many individuals, businesses, community groups and churches that started to help people that had been harmed by the bulldozer attack. The outpouring of community support was overwhelming and incredibly encouraging. 

We knew we wanted to rebuild, but there were time and money constraints. We ran the appliance side of Gambles out of our home garage for weeks. In the weeks that followed, the decision was made to only sell appliances and let the hardware side of the business go.

In August 2004, we moved into the Pinecone Plaza. In 2008, the appliance business moved into Legacy Building on Thompson Drive. In 2011, enough resources became available for us to rebuild Gambles in its original location. We reopened the Gambles Business Building in spring 2012. 

We would like to stress the gratitude we feel toward God and our community for their help and support during the event and during the recovery efforts. 

— Casey and Rhonda Farrell, Gambles owners

Editor’s note: Responses are complied from interviews, questionnaires and prior reporting. Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity. Information in bulleted lists is sourced from Sky-Hi News archives, business and property owners, Colorado Bureau of Investigations and Grand County Sheriff’s Office.

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