Catt family
| Founding location | McMinnville, Oregon |
|---|---|
| Years active | 2010–2012 |
| Territory |
Portland, Oregon, and Katy, Texas, areas |
| Membership | Ronald Scott Catt Hayden Catt Abigail Catt |
| Leader(s) | Scott Catt |
| Criminal activities | Bank robberies |
The Catt family, Ronald "Scott" Catt, and eventually his two children, Hayden and Abigail Catt, were responsible for a number of bank robberies in the Portland, Oregon, and Houston, Texas, areas. After the death of his wife, Catt was facing financial difficulties due in part to his drug and alcohol addictions and unstable employment history. Catt decided to bolster the family income by robbing banks. Catt and his family committed several robberies, all occurring while the family lived a seemingly typical middle-class American life.
Ronald Scott Catt (born 1963, and known as "Scott") was an engineer married to "Beth" [nee Worrell] Catt. The couple had two children, and lived in Dundee, Oregon, 45 miles outside Portland. After the 1997 death of his wife due to breast cancer, Scott Catt became addicted to drugs and alcohol. At the time of their mother's death, son Hayden was five and daughter Abby two years old. Friends afterward still saw Catt as a devoted single father to his children.
Hayden and Abby eventually attended McMinnville High School, where they were both honor students and members of the swimming team. Scott Catt was president of the McMinnville Swim Club board of directors and considered a well respected leader in the community. In 2011, Catt again lost his job and his house was foreclosed on. He connected with a corporate headhunter specializing in engineering, and relocated to Texas in January 2012. His children dropped out of school; Abby went to live with her grandmother, while Hayden moved to Hawaii to work at a resort.
Hayden and Abby, however, soon joined Scott in Texas. The family lived in the Nottingham Place apartment complex in a middle-class community of Katy, Texas, a western suburb of Houston. Around the complex, the Catts were considered "just everyday, harmless people." Catt held down a well-paying job as an engineer designing ore-moving systems for coke plants; Abby worked at the Victoria's Secret outlet at the Katy Mall; and Hayden attempted to get established as a concierge in an hotel.
"I did it for the family... I swear to you, I would only rob banks for my family." —Scott Catt
Sometime between 2000 and 2002, Catt began a series of as many as five Portland-area bank robberies—most without the knowledge of his children—which spanned a time-frame of several years. Catt has commented that it was an attempt to keep his family solvent while feeding his old addictions—to which a compulsion to rob banks with some regularity was now being added.
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