Port Townsend farmer accused of leading double life as bank robber

The call came out of the blue a week ago Friday. It was the FBI, asking to speak with Kateen Fenter.

They said her husband, Michael, was in jail and that he was accused of bank robbery.

From Washington all the way down to California, he is suspected of four armed robberies in all.

"We've been married for 20 years," Kateen Fenter said Saturday. "Everything's been beautiful and wonderful. Now my whole life is falling apart."

On Thursday, Michael Fenter was charged in U.S. District Court with robbing a bank in Tacoma.

Before that, he had never been charged with a crime. He had Kateen, and three kids, and a Port Townsend farm to take care of. Until earlier this year, he had a job with a boat-repair business. And now he may be facing years in prison.

"No one can understand it," Kateen Fenter said. "It's very out of character. Even the FBI says they don't understand."

Kateen and Michael, 40, had known each other for 25 years, since they were kids.

In 2007, they had bought 40 acres near Discovery Bay, called Compass Rose Farm. They arranged for the stream and the woods to remain protected in perpetuity through a land trust. They raised sheep and grew produce and hay. They had a trickle of income, but it was enough.

"Our lives are simple," Kateen Fenter said. "We're not a credit-card family." She said other than the farm, they have no debt. Her parents live with them and help out with the mortgage.

According to charging documents, Fenter is accused of entering a Bank of America branch in Tacoma on Oct. 8, demanding an employee fill a sack with money and claiming to have a bomb in a box that he carried. He said he represented a group of people who were angry at the government.

Fenter allegedly left the bank with $73,000.

Police were waiting outside, tipped off by a 911 call. They arrested their suspect, who was carrying a .40 caliber handgun in his waistband, court documents state. The box contained a blasting cap, a small explosive device. Police said there were stacks of money and two more weapons in his car, and that his fingertips were coated in Super Glue.

Initially, Fenter declined to identify himself, instead saying his name was Patrick Henry, which prompted the FBI to nickname him the "John Doe bandit." Eventually, they determined John Doe was Fenter.

Even authorities are scratching their heads.

"It is very unusual for us to find a bank robber who is just a normal upstanding citizen," FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs said. A typical bank robber, she said, is someone who is "extremely down on their luck." They are often drug users.

"It is unusual to find somebody who is a working family man involved in this kind of activity," Burroughs said.

She declined to comment on possible motives.

The FBI is investigating whether Fenter robbed a Washington Mutual branch in downtown Seattle on Feb. 4, leaving a suspicious bag behind that prompted an evacuation of the building and a street closure. Fenter also is being investigated in connection with two bank holdups in Sacramento and San Francisco, an FBI official said Saturday.

When the FBI called, Kateen Fenter recalled: "I couldn't believe what they were saying could be true."

Kateen managed the farm, which sold eggs, lamb meat and produce, while Mike worked at a boat-repair yard 14 miles away in Port Townsend. A friend said he quit last January, for reasons that are unclear.

"They were farmers, and he was a working guy," recalled Matt Elder, owner of the Sea Marine boat repair yard.

Elder called the news of Fenter's arrest "bizarre. ... It comes as a huge shock to anyone who knew him and the family, and the hard work that was going on out at the farm."

A friend, Becca Lupton, said, "I just have been walking around in a fog because it seems unbelievable." She met Fenter four years ago when he was a student at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in nearby Port Hadlock and she was a waitress at the Ajax Café across the street.

"He was just a really nice, solid, friendly person. He would always help out with anything," Lupton said. She said he was excited about acquiring the farm property, going back to the land and homesteading.

Since Michael Fenter has been jailed, Kateen has spoken with him only once. She sits by the phone in case he calls again — inmates can only call collect, she said, and they can't call collect to a cellphone.

She steeled herself for his first court appearance, which she expected to occur last Monday, but it kept getting pushed back.

On Friday, Kateen Fenter finally went to court and saw her husband.

Afterward, in the lobby, she broke down sobbing.

He has not yet entered a plea.

Over the past few days, friends and family have tried to be supportive.

Fenter said her kids are devastated.

"I love my husband," she said. "I don't know what will happen to us."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com