Griffin convinces Ben to spend the night in the condemned Rockford house as a protest against the town's decision.

Griffin discovers a Babe Ruth baseball card hidden inside a secret drawer in an antique desk.

Griffin and Ben escape through a window moments before demolition crews tear down the Rockford house.

Palomino tells Griffin the card is a 1967 reproduction and buys it from him for $200.

Griffin sees Palomino on television bragging about a rare 1920 Babe Ruth card he plans to auction for up to $1 million.

Griffin bikes back to confront Palomino but is chased out of the Emporium by the guard dog Luthor.

Ben discovers a 'For Sale' sign in Griffin's yard and learns the real reason Griffin is desperate to reclaim the card.

Griffin hides Ben inside a crate delivered to the Emporium, but they discover the safe is gone from the store.

Griffin assembles a team of classmates — each chosen for a special skill — to break into Swindle's heavily guarded house.

The team enters Swindle's house through the bathroom skylight on the night of the auction.

Griffin burns through the safe in Swindle's master bedroom with a blowtorch, only to find it completely empty.

Griffin reaches into a frozen turkey in Swindle's kitchen and pulls out a bag containing the baseball card.

Griffin uses his father's SmartPick invention to pluck the baseball card from a tree after Darren sends it airborne.

Police follow Griffin to the old Rockford house mailbox and place him under arrest while he tries to retrieve the card.

Darren's parents sell the card and donate the proceeds, funding construction of the Cedarville museum and a skatepark.

Griffin and Ben discover a valuable Babe Ruth baseball card inside a condemned house, only for a crooked dealer to con them out of it for $200. After seeing the dealer brag on television about auctioning the card for up to a million dollars, Griffin vows to steal it back. When an initial break-in at the dealer's shop reveals the safe is gone, Griffin recruits a team of classmates with special skills to raid the dealer's heavily guarded home. The heist succeeds despite many close calls, but the aftermath brings police, a public arrest, and consequences Griffin never planned for. Ultimately, the card ends up with its rightful heir, whose family donates the proceeds to build both the town museum and the skatepark Griffin always wanted.

The core heist story from discovery to resolution.

Griffin proposes a skatepark at a town hall meeting, but adults ignore him and vote to build a history museum instead.

A bat flies into Griffin's hair while he explores the dark, abandoned Rockford house.

Griffin and Ben enter the Emporium and are struck by its high prices and cold, vault-like atmosphere.

Ben remarks that Palomino's name sounds like 'Swindle,' and the nickname sticks for the rest of the story.

Mr. Martinez separates Griffin and Ben in class, placing them on opposite sides of the room after their disruptive argument.

Ben sits next to Logan Kellerman, who bitterly rants about being passed over for a heartburn medication commercial.

Griffin and Ben stake out the Emporium, where Luthor lunges at them through the tall chain-link fence.

Savannah visits Luthor nightly after closing time to befriend him, but her gentle approach completely fails to tame him.

Ben falls asleep inside the delivery crate while waiting alone inside the locked Emporium.

Griffin spots a black guard dog lunging behind a neighborhood fence and suspects Luthor is guarding the card at Swindle's home.

The team plants a Rangers hockey ticket addressed to someone else in Swindle's mailbox to lure him away from his house.

Pitch sprains her ankle descending through the skylight, trapping the entire team inside Swindle's house.

Luthor fights off Swindle's second, larger guard dog, giving the team just enough time to escape the master bedroom.

The heist makes national headlines and news trucks flood into Cedarville, with the story appearing on CNN.

Logan returns to Mr. Mulroney's porch after the heist is resolved to continue their backgammon games.

While the main heist unfolds, smaller but important moments build the world around Griffin's plan. Adults repeatedly dismiss Griffin and his friends, from the town hall meeting where his skatepark idea is ignored to Swindle's casual exploitation of two kids. The recruitment of Logan, Savannah, Melissa, and Pitch brings humor and personality to the crew as each character's quirks and skills emerge. During the heist, unexpected obstacles — a sprained ankle, a second guard dog, and a national media frenzy — test the team's ability to improvise. The story closes with Swindle's reputation in ruins, a new friendship between Logan and Mulroney, and the bonds Griffin's plan quietly forged among his classmates.

The supporting details and side moments that shaped the heist.

Griffin invites every classmate to join his overnight protest at the Rockford house, but only Ben shows up.

Ben argues that the baseball card does not belong to Griffin because it was found in someone else's house.

Palomino immediately locks the purchased card in a bolted safe under the register, making Griffin deeply suspicious.

Griffin decides to steal the card back rather than file a lawsuit his family cannot afford.

Ben refuses to go along with Griffin's plan for the first time ever, calling it illegal and morally wrong.

Ben's father suggests the Emporium's security code is '1701,' a reference to the USS Enterprise from Star Trek.

Savannah tames Luthor by yelling insults at him in pure frustration, after every friendly approach has failed.

Mr. Martinez overhears the boys discussing the heist and unwittingly suggests they visit town hall for house blueprints.

Darren blackmails Griffin after secretly overhearing the heist plan, forcing Griffin to reluctantly include him on the team.

Melissa intercepts Swindle's email and learns the auction house plans to collect the card early, threatening the entire plan.

Ben reveals his narcolepsy to Griffin just before the heist begins, forcing a last-minute role swap with Melissa.

Luthor nervously leads Savannah to a closed door, revealing that Swindle has a hidden second guard dog inside his house.

Griffin secretly mails the baseball card to the old Rockford house mailbox for safekeeping without telling his teammates where it went.

Griffin confesses the full story to his parents and watches how the heist has permanently changed the way they see him.

Griffin's father reveals that the SmartPick attracted investors during the media frenzy, ending the family's financial crisis for good.

Beneath the adventure, the story is driven by a series of moral dilemmas and surprising discoveries that shape Griffin's character. From Ben's first objection that the card was never Griffin's to take, to Griffin's decision to fight back against an adult who cheated him because he was a kid, each turning point raises questions about ownership and justice. Planning the heist is shaped by unexpected finds — a Star Trek passcode, a hidden second dog, and an early auction pickup — that force constant adaptation. At the crisis point, Griffin's arrest strips away his confidence in plans alone and forces an honest reckoning with his parents. By the story's close, Griffin has grown from a boy obsessed with his own schemes into one who understands the real cost his actions have on the people around him.