History Main / ChronicEvidenceRetentionSyndrome

* "Series/ColdCase": In Season 6, Episode 16 "Jackals", the eponymous biker gang responsible for the episode's crime of the week keeps minutes on every criminal act it does and retains those records for decades, to the benefit of the cold case detectives who eventually come to investigate it.

* ''Film/TheDeparted'' reveals in the finale that Frank Costello has recorded all his conversations with [[TheMole Colin Sullivan]] and given instructions on his death to his lawyer to send the evidence to Billy Costigan. The evidence was mutually self-incriminating and Costello created the records for the sake of ''insurance''. Though since Costello was a rat for the FBI, he could also have been using the recordings with the intention of selling out Sullivan down the road.

* ''Film/GlassOnion'': A key piece of evidence is [[spoiler: the napkin on which Andi Brand wrote her inspiration for Alpha. Helen Brand and Benoit Blanc suspect one of the guests killed Andi to get it so they can use it as leverage over Miles Bron. They finally find it HiddenInPlainSight in Miles' office -- he took it after he murdered Andi]]. The stupidity is {{Lampshaded}}: [[spoiler: Lionel]] is baffled by the decision to keep it (poorly) hidden instead of immediately destroy it, since the item can serve no purpose except self-incrimination. In TheSummation delivered by Blanc, this is {{Justified|Trope}}: [[spoiler: contrary to his [[VillainWithGoodPublicity public image]], [[DumberThanTheyLook Miles Bron is an idiot]] who DidntThinkThisThrough. As soon as Helen lets her guard down, he seizes the opportunity to destroy the napkin, then thanks Lionel for the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero good idea]].]]

* In ''Any Old Diamonds'', apart from the diamond parure that's the target of the heist, the safe belonging to the main character's WickedStepmother the Duchess also contains [[spoiler: a ring belonging to her dead first husband. She could only have obtained it by taking it off his corpse--ie, having it proves she lied and was at the scene of his "suicide". She hated the guy and the ring's value is trivial to somebody with her kind of money, so there was no good reason to keep it. Particularly because the book is set in Victorian England and they have the death penalty (a duchess probably wouldn't hang, but still). The main characters speculate that it's a combination of jewel mania and a spiteful inability to give up a single thing she views as "hers".]]
* In ''Literature/TheFourthProtocol'' by Creator/FrederickForsyth, a jewel thief plans to burn a briefcase from his latest job (and his fence [[LampshadeHanging scolds him for still having it]]). But it's such a nice one, he can't bear to, so he checks to see there's no identifying marks and keeps it. However it's someone else who gets burned; after his fence is murdered by men searching for the case, he examines it a second time and discovers a hidden compartment [[TheMole full of top-secret documents]].

** Used in the episode "Truth and Reconcilation", where the target is a Haitian prison official who escaped the country without answering for his crimes and is living under an assumed identity. Michael's goal is to convince him that identity is starting to come apart and that he's someone who can forge an even better identity for a price if he just gives him the documents he needs. [[spoiler:It falls through when the villain's papa (who was assumed dead) turns out to have done digging of his own and figures it out, forcing Michael to flee and the documents in question likely destroyed. They settle for kidnapping the guy and sending him back to face justice the hard way through the many witnesses who can recognize his face.]]

'''Stringer:''' Nigga, is you taking notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy? ''[destroys pad]'' The fuck is you thinking, man?

* ''Series/OneLifeToLive''. Irene Manning's diary, which contained entries that implicates Dorian Lord in Victor Lord's murder, was stolen from the DA's office by David Vickers, who gave it to Dorian. Before she could destroy it, it was then stolen from ''her'' by Todd Manning, Irene's son, who insisted on hanging on to it as it was the only link he had to his late mother (he was given up for adoption). When Todd was "killed", a box of his personal effects was delivered to the police station--including the diary, which ended up right back where it had started, as did Dorian, who once again found herself under arrest for murder. ([[HollywoodLaw And once again, the fact that such evidence would have been compromised and inadmissible was glossed over.]])

* Played with in ''VideoGame/ForgottenRealms VideoGame/{{Treasures of the Savage Frontier}}''. The various enemies the party faces carries tons of papers for each town in the region, detailing their plans. Said plans can only be read [[spoiler:with the crystals each of the three main factions of bad guys carried. They shatter these crystals when one of their number is slain in combat]].

** Once Nixon realized just how much trouble he was in, and that invoking executive immunity would not keep the tapes out of the hands of investigators, he did try to start deleting them. However, there were so many tapes (he'd been recording every conversation in the Oval Office since he entered the Presidency), that the task was too enormous and he simply gave up...although not before deleting that eighteen and a half minutes from one conversation.

** Well, they DID start to shred stuff, but only when it was way too late for them. A lot of that shredded material is still being sorted out today. Upon the approach of the Red Army, the Nazis started destroying and demolishing various concentration camps and extermination camps. They completely destroyed Treblinka, Sobibor and others, and tried to demolish some of the surviving camps before it was too late. There is only one extermination camp that is nearly completely preserved, and that is Majdanek. The reason for its preservation? It was the first camp to be liberated. This is the mundane reason why estimates for UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust can never be completely and accurately determined because some of the evidence is destroyed.

* ''Film/GlassOnion'': A key piece of evidence is [[spoiler: the napkin on which Andi Brand wrote her inspiration for Alpha. Helen Brand and Benoit Blanc suspect one of the guests killed Andi to get it so they can use it as leverage over Miles Bron. They finally find it HiddenInPlainSight in Miles' office -- he took it after he murdered Andi]]. The stupidity is {{Lampshaded}}: [[spoiler: Lionel]] is baffled by the decision to keep it instead of immediately destroy it, since the item can serve no purpose except self-incrimination. In TheSummation delivered by Blanc, this is {{Justified|Trope}}: [[spoiler: contrary to his [[VillainWithGoodPublicity public image]], [[DumberThanTheyLook Miles Bron is an idiot]] who DidntThinkThisThrough. As soon as Helen lets her guard down, he seizes the opportunity to destroy the napkin, then thanks Lionel for the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero good idea]].]]

* ''Film/GlassOnion'': A key piece of evidence is [[spoiler: the napkin on which Andi Brand wrote her inspiration for Alpha. Helen Brand and Benoit Blanc suspect one of the guests killed Andi to get it so they can use it as leverage over Miles Bron. They finally find it HiddenInPlainSight in Miles' office -- he took it after he murdered Andi]]. The stupidity of keeping it is {{Lampshaded}}: [[spoiler: Lionel]] is baffled by the decision not to immediately destroy it, since it can serve no purpose except self-incrimination. In TheSummation delivered by Blanc, this is {{Justified|Trope}}: [[spoiler: contrary to his [[VillainWithGoodPublicity public image]], [[DumberThanTheyLook Miles Bron is an idiot]] who DidntThinkThisThrough. As soon as Helen lets her guard down, he seizes the opportunity to destroy the napkin, then thanks Lionel for the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero good idea]].]]

* ''Film/GlassOnion'': A key piece of evidence is [[spoiler: the napkin on which Andi Brand wrote her inspiration for Alpha. Helen Brand and Benoit Blanc suspect one of the guests killed Andi to get it so they can use it as leverage over Miles Bron. They finally find it HiddenInPlainSight in Miles' office -- he took it after he murdered Andi]]. The stupidity of keeping it is {{Lampshaded}}: [[spoiler: Lionel]] is baffled by the decision not to immediately destroy it, since it can serve no purpose except self-incrimination. In TheSummation delivered by Blanc, it is {{Justified}}: [[spoiler: contrary to his public image, [[DumberThanTheyLook Miles Bron is an idiot]] who DidntThinkThisThrough. As soon as Helen lets her guard down, he seizes the opportunity to destroy the napkin, then thanks Lionel for the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero good idea]].]]

* The Nightingale Killer in ''Film/{{Frequency}}'' had a box with trophies and newspaper clippings, stashed in a hidden compartment in a closet in his apartment. Once John identifies the killer in 1999, he sends his father (in 1969) to the address to find it, since the police knew that the killer always took mementos.

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-->-- Conan Edogawa, ''Manga/CaseClosed''

* A heroic subversion in ''Series/BurnNotice'': [[spoiler:after Michael Westen is framed for murdering his CIA liaison, the first thing he does is get rid of the murder weapon. [[KillItWithFire By destroying it with thermite.]]]]

-->''"Humans are funny creatures. We find it hard to abandon an item that might put us in danger. We fear that someone might find it."''

-- Conan Edogawa, ''Manga/CaseClosed''

* Lampshaded and averted in ''Film/TheGodfather'', Rocco Lampone carries a revolver with taped grip and trigger (to prevent fingerprints) and Clemenza tells him to leave it at the scene to prevent it from being traced back to them.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Wilson Fisk largely averts this, being careful to eliminate anything that can be traced back to him. Except for what does him in in season 3, which is when he has Dex's "north star" [[MoralityChain Julie Barnes]] killed, as well as the bodies of the two hitmen hired to shoot her, and rather than dispose of them, [[BodyInBreadbox he has Felix Manning throw them in a meat locker for preservation]]. Dex thus finds out the truth when Matt tortures this information out of Felix.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Wilson Fisk largely averts this, being careful to eliminate anything that can be traced back to him. Except for what does him in in season 3, which is when he has Dex's "north star" [[MoralityChain Julie Barnes]] killed, as well as the bodies of the two hitmen hired to shoot her, and rather than dispose of them, [[StuffedIntoTheFridge he has Felix Manning throw them in a meat locker for preservation]]. Dex thus finds out the truth when Matt tortures this information out of Felix.