Abby Catt: Born to Rob

I want to talk about Rumpelstiltskin, actually no, no, to be clear, I do not want to talk about that man, or goblin, or demon, whatever he is, I don't know. He definitely seems to be friends with the devil, I know that for sure, right? But let's forget about him for a second, let's talk about the story. In the original fairy tale, a miller tries to impress the king by lying. He claims his daughter can spin straw into gold, well, the king likes the sound of that, so he drags the girl to the castle, locks her in a room filled with straw, and tells her she'll be killed unless she turns it into gold by morning. Of course, she can't, no one can, but she's alone, terrified, trying desperately to live up to the lie her father told to make himself look at her. But she's alone, terrified, trying desperately to live up to the lie her father told to make himself look at her. It's August 2012 in Katy, Texas. Summer temps soar, but that's not why Abby Cat is sweating it. Behind a strip mall bank, she sits at the wheel of her aging green Jetta. It idles in park as she watches the clock. Every 30 seconds, Abby speaks into a walkie-talkie which she holds in a death grip, counting out the time. A minute thirty, two minutes, two and a half, three. Three means it's time to go. The back door of the bank flies open and a couple of men make a beeline for her car. They throw garbage bags full of cash in the back and climb in. Abby's trying not to freak out while shifting into drive. Not only is this her very first day as a getaway driver, she's 18, terrified, and basically three hours into knowing how old she is. But she doesn't know how a clutch works. Her palms are sweating so badly, the steering wheel might slip out of her hands. Every time she checks the rearview mirror, she half expects sirens to sprout from the pavement. It sounds like an actual nightmare, but this is real life. Oh, and the two bank robbers in her car, they're the people she loves most in the entire world. Her big brother and her dad. Abby wants to step on the gas. But her dad doesn't want to. Abby wants to step on the gas, but her dad doesn't want to. But her dad, Scott, warns her, keep it slow, make a full stop at every stop sign, don't give the police a reason to suspect you. She's always relied on her dad's advice, and they make it back to the apartment they all share, safe and sound. Their very first bank robbery as a family has gone off without a hitch. And now, they get to the fun part, counting the cash. Abby learns they made nearly $70,000 in less than an hour. She's never seen this much money in her life. So maybe her dad was right. Maybe things will be okay. Abby Cat might be brand new to this whole bank robbing thing, but her dad is not. Scott's been at this for years. It started in Oregon. In the early 2000s, after everything in his life seemed to fall apart, his wife, Beth, had died of breast cancer. The dream house they'd built in wine country slipped away. His car got repossessed. He was bouncing between jobs, drinking too much, living with his mom, trying and failing to keep it together for the kids. One morning, after dropping Hayden and Abby off at school, Scott drove to a small branch of the same bank where his own father had once worked as a loan officer. He walked in wearing a ball cap, black sweatshirt, and a pair of jeans. He was wearing black sweatshirts, a white painter's mask, sunglasses, and carrying an antique pistol he claims wasn't even loaded. He handed a trash bag to the teller, told her not to add dye packs or bait bills, and walked out with about $2,500. A couple of days later, the local paper ran a grainy security still of the robber. Scott's mom looked at it and joked that that guy kind of looked like her son. Scott laughed it off. The robbers never came knocking. And that was about as close as he ever came to getting caught. Over the next few years, whenever he fell behind on bills, he'd hit another little branch in another little town. Always the same basic costume, always in and out in a few minutes. By the time he left Oregon, investigators now believe he'd robbed at least five banks. Meanwhile, from the outside, he looked like a devoted single dad. He made dinner. He took the kids to ride roller coasters on vacation. He became president of their swim club. The wad of money in his dresser? Well, as far as Hayden and Abby knew, it was just dad hustling to keep them afloat. They had no idea he had a whole other life. And they had no reason to suspect their dad was a full-on criminal. Because they trusted him. Scott, Abby, and Hayden had become an incredibly tight family ever since Abby's mom died. In a lot of ways, Scott stepped up as a single parent. He got his children into swimming. He showed up at every practice. He even cooked elaborate meals the night before every meet. But things weren't perfect. He also used one of his kids' swim meets as an alibi. Oh yeah. One time between Abby's races, he went across the street, robbed a bank, and then came back in time to cheer her on. And as the kids got a little older, Scott was a lot more hands-off as a parent. He didn't notice or didn't care when Abby's grades were slipping or when she dropped out of school. He was busy dealing with an addiction to drugs and alcohol. And eventually, both of his kids started drinking heavily too. Abby pretended she was fine. Secretly, she felt like a failure. She didn't have her high school diploma or a great job. But an interesting thing about the Cat family is this. Every hurdle seems to bring the three of them closer. Which means, with all they've gone through, they're pretty close. That's why Scott trusted his kids enough to let them in on his secret. He started with Hayden. When he was 18, Scott sat him down and told him about his side hustle. And then Scott asked him, Do you want to rob banks with me? Immediately, Hayden was like, Uh, yeah, dad's a bank robber. I'm in. What do you need me to do? Count me in, pops. Scott had wanted a partner for a while, and he figured he'd make way more money as a duo. And for now, he thought they should keep this whole crime business to themselves. There was no need for Abby to know. Yet. Before the father and son team got to hold up a bank together, though, Scott took a job in Texas. Abby and Hayden followed him halfway across the country. And they settled in a town called Katy, outside of Houston. Katy's best known for two things. Its 26-lane highway is the widest in the world, and there's also a giant-ass mall. Abby landed a job at this giant-ass mall at the Victoria's Secret. Meanwhile, Scott's new career was paying 40 bucks an hour, way more than he'd ever made before. Well, at least he did. At his regular day job, at least. For a while, things were good. And normal. Scott was too focused on work to think about banks. But then he started getting bored. He kind of hated his new job. And Scott started saying things to Hayden like, "Gee, there sure are a lot of nice big banks all over this city, huh, son?" Wink wink. Scott wasn't just robbing banks. He was chasing something. Excitement. Importance. A story he could tell himself that didn't involve being ordinary. Every heist wasn't about the cash. It was about the rush of being the smartest guy in the world. the room, even if the room was a Wells Fargo lobby. Now, most dads' bucket lists have stuff like go to Fenway, or hike the Grand Canyon, or watch Band of Brothers in one sitting. Good luck. Scott's bucket list? He's always wanted to get into a bank vault, where the real money is. He could never do it before, working alone. Even with Hayden's help, Scott's not sure it's safe. It was time to make this duo a trio. One day, Abby was in her bedroom listening to Snoop Dogg. That's actually a matter of record, by the way. Anyways, that's when Hayden knocked on her door. He sat down on her bed like he wanted to have some big talk, and told her all about their dad, Robin Banks. Hayden said he was going to start joining dad, and they wanted Abby to be their dad. Their getaway driver. Actually, no, he was trying to sound cool, so he asked her to be the wheel man. Abby was shocked, but her response was pretty similar to Hayden's. If her dad needed her, she was going to help. No questions asked. She couldn't live with herself if she said no, and then something went wrong. So, she told Hayden she was in. The next morning, she went over the logistics with her dad, all she had to do was wait outside the bank. Then once Scott and Hayden got back in the car, she'd drive home. Easy peasy. Scott even sets up a pretend bank in their living room and made everyone rehearse their parts. Like a play. He actually wrote out a script for Hayden to practice. This is a bank robbery. All we want is the money. 20s, 50s, 100s. No alarms, die pack or GPS or you, your family, and your co-workers. We'll get hurt. All that practice paid off. During the heist, Scott finally got to live out his dream of ransacking a bank vault, and that brings us back to the $70,000 in cash sitting in their apartment. Now, if it were up to Abby, they'd sock it away in a savings account, but Scott has other ideas. First, he buys himself a new motorcycle. Then, he gets a new Tahoe for Hayden and a Ford Focus for Abby. By the next month, the money is gone. Which means it's time to rob another bank. There's a part of me that everyone sees. I'm Howie Mandel, the comedian. Apparently, I know what funny is. Funny bought me a house, but I also know what isn't funny. OCD. I've lived with OCD my entire life, and people throw the term around like it's no big deal. But OCD is severe, often debilitating. 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And you can schedule your first visit in days, not months. Go to talkiatry.com/killers and get matched in minutes. That's T-A-L-K-I-A-T-R-Y dot com slash killers. Talkiatry dot com slash killers. This episode is brought to you by WSS. There's something about soccer fandom that feels inherited. Like one generation passes it down to the next. The rivalries, the rituals, the jerseys that mean everything. And when it's finally time to gear up for match day, WSS has the whole squad covered. From official soccer jerseys and gear to sportswear, sneakers, and more, WSS has the best value on everything your family needs. Shop now at your local WSS or online at allyourmagic.com. In September 2012, Scott chooses the family's next target, a credit union. This time, Abby has a bigger job. Her dad sends her into the credit union a few days before the robbery to do some recon. She has to pretend like she's interested in opening an account there while secretly mapping out the inside. And she's a nervous wreck the entire time. Scott also sends her and her brother to pick up new disguises. Orange vests with a painter's mask for Scott. Hayden opts for a fake mustache. With that, they're ready for their next hit. Their second job goes down a lot like the first. The guys go in, Abby counts down the minutes over the walkie, and when it's all over, she drives the getaway car. Only this time, as they leave, she passes multiple cop cars speeding towards the bank. Scott and Hayden duck down in their seats so all the police see is a teenage girl driving by herself. They don't give her a second thought, but it rattles Abby's nerves. She tries to relax and get her nails done, but she's buzzing. She can't sleep, and she starts feeling like they're going to get caught. From their second job, the family nets about $30,000. Abby knows what that means. Before long, her dad is going to want to rob another bank, and Abby tells him she wants out. I can imagine it's really hard for her to tell her dad no. Like the Miller's daughter asked to spin straw into gold, Abby's being put into an impossible situation, but she summons the courage anyway and asks for her cut of the money. Scott won't let her go so easily. He begs her to stick with them. He says he actually quit his day job, the one that paid well. Because he wants them to be full-time criminals. He pleads with Abby. They need her. They can't pull this off without her. And those are the magic words. Later, Scott will say he wanted his kids to rob banks with him because it would give them confidence, light a fire under their butts, and motivate them. Like I guess if you rob a bank, you might feel like you could do anything. I don't know. Dad lessons, I guess. They can be pretty weird. Like forcing someone to smoke a whole pack of cigarettes so you'll never smoke a whole pack of cigarettes. He's also under the assumption that bank robberies are a victimless crime. He isn't harming anybody, and the money is insured. But he fails to consider that the people in the bank he's robbing don't know he's not going to hurt them. He is however aware that he's using his children's loyalty to get them to rob banks. He actually says, "It was all my manipulation." He knows full well that if he begs Abby and tells her they cannot do this without her, she'll go along with the plan. Which is exactly what she does. On November 9, 2012, the Catt family is in their living room at Nottingham Place, the apartment complex where everybody thinks they're just a normal, tight-knit family. The place looks out over a resort-style pool and a fitness center. In the evenings, neighbors are used to seeing Scott on the walking path, with their yellow lab, Bella, circling the building like any other middle-aged dad trying to get his steps in. Inside, though, it's a different story. That morning, Scott and Hayden are getting ready for their third robbery. They've already bailed once, scouted a bank the day before, and decided there was too much foot traffic. Today is supposed to be the do-over. New plan, new disguises, same basic dream: get into another vault, grab the cash, and keep climbing. Scott had promised that as long as his kids did everything he said, there wouldn't be any trouble. He believes it. He really believes he's smarter than the system. What he doesn't know is that the system has already caught up. They'd made three crucial mistakes during the second robbery at the credit union. First, the disguises. Scott decided they should dress like construction workers this time. So he sent Abby and Hayden out to buy brand new orange vests. When detectives reviewed the security footage from the robbery, they saw those orange vests. It was hard not to. They were shiny and new, right out of the package. It didn't take long to track down where they came from and who bought them. The second mistake happened during the robbery. While Hayden was collecting the cash, Scott was keeping an eye on everybody, making sure there was no funny business. But he didn't account for the break room in the back. And it was lunch time. Some of the employees were sitting down with reheated leftovers when they saw everything unfold on the security cameras. They called the cops and took notes on everything they saw and heard. Like Abby's car, parked right outside the break room window. While Abby was back there, her license plate fell off. Well, it wasn't her license plate. They'd stolen one and taped it on top of Abby's real plate. That was mistake number three. Police found the plate left behind, covered in Scott's fingerprints. And that led them straight to the family's apartment. So, while the cats sit in their Nottingham Place living room, thinking about bank vaults and getaway routes, unmarked cars roll into the complex. Detectives walk up to the door, not guessing, not hoping, knowing who lives inside. And this time, nobody gets to drive away. All three of the cats are arrested and detained in separate interrogation rooms. Because police want to see who spills their guts first. When you sign up with Eligible Direct Deposit, sign up at SoFi.com/Spotify. SoFi checking and savings offered through SoFi Bank N.A., member FDIC. Terms apply. This episode is brought to you by SoFi, the all-in-one finance app. The sooner you start investing, the more potential you have to build your money. Even for beginners, SoFi makes it simple with an easy-to-use app. To get you going, SoFi is offering up to $1,000 in stock when you open an app. SoFi makes it simple with an easy-to-use app. To get you going, SoFi makes it simple with an easy-to-use app. Learn more at SoFi.com/Spotify. Brokerage offered through SoFi Securities LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC. Terms apply. Evening. Buyer's remorse. Buy a new car? I'll be moving in. Let's get started. Uh, sorry. I think there's been a mistake. I bought it from Carvana. You what? Yeah, great price. I even have seven days to love it or return it. So there's no. No. No buyer's remorse. More like buyer's rejoice. I guess I'll let myself out. Congratulations. I mean it. Buyer's rejoice. Buy your car today on Carvana. Limitations and exclusions may apply. See our seven-day return policy at Carvana.com. Investigators don't want Abby, Scott, or Hayden to speak to each other before their interview. They don't want to give them a chance to drum up some wacky coverage. But it turns out all three of the bank robbers confess right away. Detectives start with Scott. He's put in a small interview room at the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office. The kind with cinderblock walls and that humming fluorescent light that makes everyone look guilty. Scott doesn't lawyer up or play dumb. He waives his right to an attorney and basically says, "Let me take you back 16 years." Before detectives can even lay out the evidence, Scott starts confessing. Texas robberies, Oregon robberies, the whole secret career. He talks about his wife's death, his drinking, the bills, the spiral. He insists he did it for the family. "I would only rob banks for my family." Detectives are stunned. Most cops are used to dragging confessions out of people. This one walks in and unloads his entire criminal history like it's a TED talk. Next up is Hayden. He sits down in his own little room, crosses one leg neatly over the other, and also folds. Fast. Partly because his dad told him to cooperate and Hayden has basically spent his whole life doing what his dad tells him. But also because the weight has become unbearable. He tells the detectives that his father always claimed there were no victims in a bank robbery. That the money was insured. That nobody really gets hurt. And then he admits what's been haunting him. The faces. The tellers who thought they were about to die. The terror in their eyes when a shaking 20-year-old pointed a gun at them and yelled for cash. He asks the same question he asks himself, staring at the ceiling every night. What were we thinking? For the detectives, this is rapidly becoming the easiest case of their careers. Last is Abby. She's brought in wearing a gray hoodie, black yoga pants, and fuzzy black and white slippers on her feet. Sunglasses perched on top of her head like she's halfway between a mugshot and a mall run. She tries to hold it together. It doesn't last. She breaks down. She doesn't deny anything. Doesn't even try. Instead, she keeps circling the same idea that her dad has always been there for her. That he told her they needed her. That she felt like she had to protect him. That bailing on him saying no would have felt worse than prison. She is, in real time, trying to explain what it means to be the Miller's daughter in a modern-day bank robbery fairy tale. Trapped in a room she didn't ask to be in. Trying to spin straw into gold because the man who raised her said she could. Meanwhile, the story hits the news and people are glued to it. A family of bank robbers. It's almost unheard of in almost, what, the last 100 years? Mainly, people want to understand how. How a father could involve his kids in his crimes. And Scott agrees to a few interviews to give his side of the story because he always swears that he'll do anything to help his kids avoid jail time. But that's not exactly true. When it's time to negotiate a plea deal, Scott writes Abby, a letter. He has another impossible and unfair request for his daughter. He needs her to spin that golden straw for him once more. Scott asks Abby if she would be willing to serve jail time to help him. He thinks it might lower his own sentence. Abby has proven her loyalty to him time and time again. But this is taking it too far. He said that he regretted his actions and yet he wants to share the responsibility with his own children. And Abby finally turns him down. Perhaps she comes to a realization that her father never saw her as his partner, only as his solution. Her defense team arranges her deal separately from her family's. In 2013, all three cats plead guilty. Scott accepts a 24-year deal for aggravated robbery. Hayden gets 10 years. And Abby makes out with five. Well, it's kind of a miracle, to be honest. Under Texas law, a getaway driver has the same liability as the robber holding the gun. But police and prosecutors take pity on Abby. They believe she's more of a victim than a perpetrator. And she doesn't go to prison. The cops put her in the county jail where she gets her GED and learns a trade. When Abby's paroled a couple years later, her road to a normal life is pretty bumpy. At first, she gets a job with a trucking company and meets a guy named Ricardo. Ricardo likes to party. And Abby likes to party. But not in a good way. One night in 2016, Abby's in the passenger seat of his car and she's high. As he pulls into a gas station, she falls asleep. Minutes later, she wakes up surrounded by cops. Apparently, Ricardo allegedly tried to rob the place. Abby swears to the police that she has no idea what's going on. But obviously, when they look her up in the system, it doesn't look good. She's a convicted bank robber. And she has a warrant out for violating parole. At 22 years old, Abby Catt winds up back in jail. She's released after barely a year. And instead of drifting back into the same pattern she grew up in, she steps onto a greyhound headed for Oregon to go stay with her aunt. She lands a job in a fish processing plant. Cold floors, wet boots, a smell that seeps into every stitch of your clothes no matter how many showers you take. It's a job. Hard. Anonymous. Unremarkable. And probably not anyone's dream job. But. When your entire life has been chaos, even monotony can feel like balance. And that's where she meets a man. Someone quiet. Steady. Uncomplicated. In the best possible way. At 25, she gets pregnant and decides she wants a home. Not the kind filled with forced loyalty and whispered plans. But one built on actual safety. Actual love. Things she thought she had growing up. But never really did. Her parents taught her that family was everything. But her father used that lesson like a wrench. Tightening it around whoever he needed to control. For years, Abby may have thought loyalty was the highest virtue, the golden rule, the one unbreakable thread holding the world together, but she finally learns the truth. Loyalty without love is just fear. Loyalty without responsibility is just chaos. And if you're not careful, you'll end up right where she was, a girl in a locked room full of straw, spinning and spinning for someone else's story, getting nowhere at all. This time, Abby stops spinning. She walks out of the room and into a life she chose. Thanks for tuning in. Tune in to Killer Stories, the Spotify podcast. New episodes release on Mondays. If you like today's story and want to learn more, we drop some of our favorite sources in the episode description. Until next time, I'm Harvey Guillen. Stay safe out there. Have you met my kids? And with BJ's gas, she gets there for less. They call me the road warrior. This is your home, road warrior mom. Home of the save. Join for just $20 at BJs.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer, new members only. BJ's, home of the save. Do you hear that? That sound, right? That means that summer's officially here. It means that grown adults just sprint into the street for a frozen dessert shaped like a cartoon. But this is the home of the save. This is the home of the save. This summer, Mint Mobile has a better treat. Every plan, including unlimited, is $15 a month. And unlike ice cream, it won't drip down your wrist or look nothing like the picture. Does anyone have any cash? 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