The Frame Up

Nora was a new recruit with the FBI. She had only been out of college, and unemployed, for about six months when her uncle, a lifelong employee with the FBI, called her one day. He explained that the department was looking to hire new recruits and he thought she would be perfect for the job.

      Since she had majored in Criminal Justice in college, that sounded like a dream come true! Nora took all the tests and passed all the physical fitness requirements and she was hired! Maybe her uncle had pulled some strings for her in the background, but she didn’t care, she was in!

      After about a year there, and being mostly a field agent learning the ropes, one day she was called in by her boss, the Deputy Assistant Director. 

      He explained that they needed a fresh young-looking face to take on the task of filling an intern’s job at a small art gallery. They needed someone like her to apply to this art gallery.

      In a serious tone, he explained that through one of their street informants, the FBI had gotten a tip that there was going to be an art theft at this small art gallery.

After verifying the tip, they needed to stop the heist and catch the art thieves. The FBI believed it was the same ring that had been stealing art and valuable pieces from local museums. The informant did not have all the details, just that there was going to be a heist.

      Her boss advised Nora that they thought she would be perfect for the job and was she up to it?

      “Am I up to it? Yes! I am up to it. I will do this. And I happen to love art, so this is a win-win for me!” she said excitedly. “I won’t let you down.”

      After reviewing all the details and logistics with her that day, Nora went home on cloud 9. Her routine field job just became her dream job.

      Nora just smiled to herself.   

Nora had always loved art and the humanities anyway and this was perfect for her. She would be working around some of the great works of art she loved and had studied about, because she minored in humanities in college.

During those college years, she had spent a lot of her free time touring art galleries of all kinds. It didn’t matter to her what kind it was, a commercial gallery, an artist-run initiative, a vanity gallery or a non-profit gallery.

All were a feast for her eyes at all the different kinds and subjects of the artists’ ideas and interpretations of their subject. Her favorite, though, was framed canvas art. And she could tell the difference between an original painting and a fake one.  

      Now that she was at the new gallery, as an intern and secret FBI agent, Nora was a quick study. After she started there, she made sure she learned where all the access doors were to the gallery, where all the empty niches were, where the gallery stored its artwork not yet on display, and the full floor plan.

      And on this day, Friday, not long after she had started at the gallery, she learned that this small gallery and a huge gallery from New York City, which had some of the greatest works of art in the world, agreed to exchange a few pieces of art with each other for a very limited time.

      The curator of the much larger New York City gallery was not at all happy when he found out that there had been an agreement to remove some of the rare works they had with a much smaller gallery’s works on the other side of town.

      But the deal had already been struck. Nora was going to be there for the exchange and the take down of the art thieves was about to happen.

      The next day was Saturday. And on Saturdays, she always got up early and went jogging. It helped her to clear her mind and to keep fit. Agents at all levels were expected to be very physically fit at all times.

      As she jogged down the well-worn path that was her usual route, she stopped at one of the park benches that was scattered along the path’s route.

      There was an ordinary-looking, casually dressed middle-aged man already sitting on the bench. He was very tall and very muscular. He was reading the morning newspaper.

      Nora plopped down on the bench and started stretching out a bit and drinking from the water bottle she kept on her belt.

      After a few minutes, the man finished reading his newspaper, folded it up neatly and laid it on the bench between them. Then he got up and started jogging down the path.

      Nora waited a minute or two and then picked up the newspaper. Wrapped within the folds of the newspaper, was a thumb drive. She palmed the drive and slipped it into her sports bra. She then continued her jog down the path.

      That night, Nora placed the thumb drive into the USB of her laptop and viewed its contents.

      The data populated on her laptop screen and it explained how the gang of art thieves was going to steal just the Mona Lisa during the exchange between the small art gallery and the large New York City gallery. 

The Mona Lisa was normally on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris, but it had been included on a tour of art galleries around the world since 2015. It had been on display at the large art gallery for a few months and was going to be included in the transport to the small gallery and would be on display for just 2 weeks.

Her secret contact had provided her all the details of how the gang planned to pull off the heist of the Mona Lisa on that thumb drive!

      Nora shared her invaluable information with the Deputy Assistant Director.

      He was beside himself with this information. How had she, as a rookie, been able to secure this information when seasoned FBI agents had not been able to nail down the details for themselves?

      She assured him with a wink that she was good at her job and she would prove it.

      He as much promised her a huge promotion and a big raise once the heist was foiled.

      Nora just smiled to herself.

Details of the heist included inside information that it was planned during the transfer between the two galleries.

Nora and the FBI coordinated their plan of action. The plan was put into place to thwart the theft and capture the people responsible for these heists and put them away!

Nora was to be the coordinating employee inside the gallery. She made sure the small art gallery had carefully packed the 10 pieces of artwork that they were going to rotate with the large art gallery. The gallery was ready.

Armed guards and policemen were stationed at every entrance and exit of the small gallery.

When the delivery van pulled up with their 10 pieces of artwork, including the Mona Lisa, the precious cargo was carefully off-loaded from the van.

Nora and the lead curator from the small gallery took the lead in directing the delivery of the precious pieces of artwork. One by one the van was emptied of its contents until all 10 pieces were inside the small gallery.

Then each of the 10 pieces in turn from the small gallery were then taken out and loaded into the van for delivery to the large gallery. 

While the curator of the small gallery was directing the loading of the art, Nora was supervising the interior placement of the replacement 10 pieces.

She kept all the employees and the delivery men very busy running here and there and barking orders such as, “Oh, be careful with that or watch where you’re going!” Nora could be heard saying. 

She personally took responsibility for the handling of the Mona Lisa. Soon all 10 of the works of art were hung and accounted for. Oh, they were stunning! The pieces from the large art gallery were so much nicer than the ones they replaced at the small art gallery.

Especially the Mona Lisa, that world-renowned, awe-inspiring piece of art by Leonardo di Vinci. It took everyone’s breath away by the sheer beauty of this one-of-a-kind piece. Oh, the admirers and hordes of people that would come to this small gallery just to view the greatest masterpiece from the 15^th century High Renaissance!

Nora, the curator, and the employees of the small art gallery stood back in awe of the magnificent pieces they had temporarily inherited.

Nora just smiled to herself.

Just as the delivery truck was about to leave, the armed guards outside the small gallery broke ranks and pulled their weapons. 

They arrested the driver and the delivery men on the spot. The would-be thieves were taken immediately to jail.

When the truck was searched, the FBI found a copy of the same instructions for the heist that had been transported via the thumb drive to Nora. It showed they were going to divert the artwork from the delivery truck to a large cargo ship due to sail that night at midnight and ditch the delivery truck and be on their way.

The plan was foiled. The artwork was saved.

The next day, the FBI praised Nora for her unbelievable work in securing the plan of the heist. Everyone applauded and congratulated their new recruit. She would surely have a long career at the Bureau.

Nora just smiled to herself.

That night, Nora finished loading her non-descript SUV with the last of the few belongings she was taking with her.

And among her belongings included the original Mona Lisa! 

Yes, Nora was the ringleader of the gang that was stealing artwork from the galleries. And she had her eyes on that prize, the Mona Lisa, ever since it had entered the United States.

Her plan went off without a hitch. Her uncle was a sap and knew she wanted a job at the FBI and she knew she would be a shoo-in.

And she was really brilliant, she thought, to plant the heist story with the street informant. She knew she would be tapped for the intern’s job at the gallery. 

She and her gang planned the heist and had the details downloaded to the thumb drive and passed to her on the park bench, just in case she was being watched. And didn’t the FBI Assistant Deputy Director fall for the plan, hook, line and sinker?

And she congratulated herself that she was able to switch out the real Mona Lisa with the fake one she had secreted away in a niche very close to where the real one was to be held. While all the employees and delivery people were scurrying about, it was easy to make the switch. The real painting is not very big and she could lift it easily.

Oh, the riches the real Mona Lisa would bring! She couldn’t even guess how much it would fetch once she got it overseas. Some billionaire sheik would pay untold millions in cash for that lovely lady with the mysterious smile. 

She would be set for life somewhere on a faraway beach at an unknown location sipping mai tai’s and having young tanned cabana boys waiting on her hand and foot.

Nora just smiled to herself.

Nora missed one important detail, however. 

Her uncle was a seasoned FBI agent and had figured out she was the ringleader of the art theft ring. He had gotten a tip when she graduated from college and was touring all the art galleries. He had the FBI following her all along.

The Mona Lisa was immediately recovered and shipped back to the Louvre in France, never to be loaned out again.

The FBI arrested Nora on the spot and took her immediately to jail.

Nora was not smiling.