DENVER -- The man who bulldozed his way through the mountain town of Granby in June got the idea for how to exact his revenge while sitting in a hot tub in 2001.

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Watch Granby Rampage, Hear Heemeyer's Explanation

According to a series of audiotapes made two months before his suicidal rampage on June 4 and released by investigators Tuesday, Heemeyer believed the idea came from God. Then, after he set out to transform a bulldozer into an armored tank last summer, the 52-year-old believed the fact that his plot wasn't discovered was further proof that he was doing God's will.

"I couldn't believe it when they couldn't catch me. It was right there under their nose," Heemeyer said on one of the tapes, which he mailed to his brother in South Dakota shortly before he rammed his homemade tank into 13 buildings and then killed himself.

Heemeyer's brother received the tapes, which are close to three hours long, a few days after the attack, Grand County Sheriff Rod Johnson said.

Heemeyer was upset with town officials after fighting with them over zoning rules and town code violations at his muffler-repair business.

He spent months inside a shed building the fortified bulldozer that would ultimately be his tomb. He then set out on a path of destruction aimed at many of Granby's officials, saying that they bullied him repeatedly and he wanted to expose the negative character of Granby's leaders.

"To show the town the real mafia-type tactics that they were using. That's all they are. They're criminals. They bend the law and they got caught and it pissed them off and now they really hate me," Heemeyer said on the tapes.

On the tapes, Heemeyer described how he saw it as fate that no one bid enough on his bulldozer at an auction, paving the way for him to fortify it for his mission.

Then when the bulldozer just barely fit into his work shed for its transformation, it was another sign that he was doing God's will, he said.

He believed that God "built" him to teach the town of Granby a lesson, and it was God's plan that he was single and childless so that he could carry out the attack.

He had planned to launch the rampage last fall but God told him to "take the winter off," he said.

In November, an insurance adjuster touring Heemeyer's building stood next to the bulldozer, which was covered with a tarp. His welding torches were hidden in a small room where he slept.

The adjuster did ask about an electronically controlled lift which had been welded to the frame of the building but Heemeyer said he told him that it was being used by a Minnesota professor to cryogenically freeze parts of the engine to make it more fuel efficient.

When the man failed to turn him in, Heemeyer concluded it was fate.

"That's the way it's supposed to be," he said. "God blessed me in advance for the task that I am about to undertake. It is my duty. God has asked me to do this. It's a cross that I am going to carry and I'm carrying it in God's name."

The former muffler repairman welded thick concrete and steel plates on his 60-ton Komatsu D355-A bulldozer and equipped the machine with video monitors, guns and even fans.

He named several people as his enemies, including the cement plant's owner, Cody Docheff, Sky-Hi News editor Patrick Brower, resident Larry Thompsonm, the town council and planning board. He accused them of conspiring against him when he tried to stop a cement batch plant from being built next to his muffler shop.

He sued Granby over the zoning decision but lost. He said that the town's decision ultimately cost him $300,000 to $500,000.

"I hope that the people of Granby learn that the way you punished me over the years (has) turned me into a desperate man," he said. "It's a community that in order to get ahead you got to keep your neighbor down ... You've got to be bad- mouthing everybody."

While some Granby residents describe the tape as a series of angry ramblings, other parts of the tape indicate a methodical, frustrated and sometimes depressed man.

He said he knew his death was inevitable, but it was a price he was willing to pay to teach Granby officials that they couldn't get away with exploiting him.

"Because of your anger, because of your malice, because of your hate, you would not work with me. I am going to sacrifice my life, my miserable future that you gave me, to show you that what you did is wrong," Heemeyer said.

Heemeyer shot himself when his bulldozer got stuck in the back of the Gambles hardware store.

No one was injured in the assault but it has cost about $5 million in damage.