Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception by Wendelin Van Draanen

KANSAS-Local girl Sammy Keyes tackled a bandit at the Vault art gallery in Santa Martina, Kansas on December Third, 2016.

All Sammy Keyes meant to do on December Third was to go to an art gallery for a “stupid” (as she says) junior high art paper, and she ended up taking down a bandit. Keyes had a paper due for her art teacher “Miss” Kuskowski. The assignment was to feel art. Experience it. Define it. But the only thing Keyes felt was the clothing of a bandit.

She went to the Vault with her grandmother Rita Keyes, and their friend and neighbor Hudson Graham. That night the Vault featured work from Tess Winters, Austin Zuni and Diane Reijden. Winters features in her abstract paintings, Reijden in her landscapes, still lifes and wooden sculptures. Zuni features in his paintings of the American Southwest and Native Americans. The bandit was carrying a squirt gun, though none of the people attending the gallery knew that. The bandit came in and told them to “FREEZE!” Then he tore some of the Reijden paintings off of her wall.

Keyes noticed a dark spot on the bandit’s coat. “I began to wonder, what if that was a drip of water? I had to find out for myself.” Keyes tackled the bandit. He snapped her tongue between her teeth, so all she could say was, “Its sus a swurcun!”

Keyes got on top of the bandit, who was wearing a nylon jacket and sneakers. She got the paintings and put them back on the Reijden wall.

Kuskowski was also at the Vault that night. Kuskowski said in an interview, “I was so proud of Sammy. I bragged to everyone that she was my student.”