12 Hours 2 Steal

The story is played out through a series of flashbacks between the present day, the lead-up and day of the burglary and The Hague in the 1940's.

1942 – In a house in The Hague, 50 year old MOZES gives a wrapped picture to a pre-teen HERSCHEL to deliver to sailors waiting in a boat.

Present day - A young woman is arrested as she exits a portrait gallery in London through an air duct with 'The Takeaway Rembrandt', the most stolen picture in the world.

Taken to the police station, VANESSA 'NESS' HENDERSON is questioned later in the morning by DC SANDRA LAWRENCE under caution. Ness's testimony is frankly unbelievable, and Sandra must work with her team to unravel it.

Ness walks DC Lawrence through a story about her downloading a podcast and it taking over her phone, locking its functionality. The AUDIO GUIDE narrator tells Ness she must steal the painting and deliver it to a certain location within 12 hours or her family will be killed.

Under a strict time limit, both from the narrator and the phone's battery, Ness is instructed to hide until closing, disable the security system, replace the Rembrandt on the wall with another suitable portrait, package the painting then make her escape to a location to be revealed closer to the time.

Ness navigates through a series of challenges, using tools from her bag (chewing gum wrappers, business cards) as well as a surprising find that have been slipped into her pocket by someone unknown as she enters the gallery. However, Ness doesn't complete the mission as her phone battery dies prior to the delivery location being revealed as she loses time by being disturbed by a security guard.

Lawrence with her team – DS DENNIS FLETCHER and DS TERRY GLAZIER – dissect Ness's story, identifying potential co-conspirators, but there's not enough evidence to pin on them. Ness's wild story is also corroborated by the state of her phone. Reluctantly, Lawrence lets Ness go under investigation, intending to follow up once more evidence becomes available.

Ness leaves the police station and immediately heads back to the gallery, tailed by a man on a motorcycle. She walks in, goes to the gift shop counter and picks up a package left behind the counter. Jumping on the back of the motorcycle, Ness and JAMES (the audio guide 'narrator') speed off to meet SPENCE (the 'guard' who disturbed her in the gallery). The package is 'Taste', the last of the series of portraits by Rembrandt called 'The Senses'; or it will be once the painting concealing it is removed.

Evading capture by Lawrence and Fletcher, the trio escape to The Hague where Ness delivers the painting back to HERSCHEL, the old man and her paternal grandfather. His grandfather disguised it and shipped it off to the gallery prior to the Nazi invasion in 1942.