History Main / ChronicEvidenceRetentionSyndrome

This trope can be justified for fairly mundane reasons. Stuff that would be considered incriminating evidence after a crime, such as bills and receipts for certain tools and implements, would be a mundane object before the crime. Likewise, people who plan to do something illegal don't expect to get caught, so they never consider deleting or destroying evidence as necessary until it's too late. In addition there is the case of AbsenceOfEvidence, where if you don't have paperwork or implements connecting you or associating you in a certain place or time, it can lead investigators to conclude that you destroyed evidence, provided you don't have an iron-tight alibi. And you know what helps maintain an alibi? [[ShapedLikeItself Paperwork that connects you to a certain time and place]]. Likewise if you are working with a group of fellow criminals and associates, some form of incriminating record will be kept, if only as a form of insurance or mutual blackmail.

This trope can be justified for fairly mundane reasons. Stuff that would be considered incriminating evidence after a crime, such as bills and receipts for certain tools and implements, would be a mundane object before the crime. Likewise, people who plan to do something illegal don't expect to get caught, so they never consider deleting or destroying evidence as necessary until it's too late. In addition there is the case of AbsenceOfEvidence, where if you don't have paperwork or implements connecting you or associating you in a certain place or time, it can lead investigators to conclude that you destroyed evidence, provided you don't have an iron-tight alibi. And you know what helps maintain an alibi? [[ShapedLikeItself Paperwork that connects you to a certian time and place]]. Likewise if you are working with a group of fellow criminals and associates, some form of incriminating record will be kept, if only as a form of insurance or mutual blackmail.

* Being German, UsefulNotes/TheStasi of East Germany did the same thing as the Nazis mentioned above. They also tried to shred at least some of it to - mostly - no avail. The paperwork used by the Stasi obviously served a practical function in the running of a PoliceState, since the files, information and evidence accumulated provided a stable database of blackmail. It's just that nobody expected the GDR to collapse and their legacy to be discredited.

* Occasionally happens to many ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' villains, who leave out clues all over the place for meddling kids to find.

* Lampshaded and averted in ''TheGodfather'', Michael and Clemenza carries revolver with taped grip and trigger (to prevent fingerprints) and both leaves the gun at the scene to prevent it from being traced back to them.

* The second arc of ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan had Peter Parker stealing ComicBook/TheKingpin's own security tapes and releasing it to the media, said tapes showed the Kingpin killing a man with his bare hands. To top it off, Peter at history class hears about the Nixon tapes and participates in a discussion about this trope. Why did Nixon (and by extension the Kingpin) installed these recording measures? Because ''they believed they were untouchable''.

* A surprising number of Internet criminals (and office workers) either don't know to clear their browser history file and cache, or simply neglect to do so.
** To a lesser extent, Facebook tends to cause a lot of embarrassing self-incrimination from people who post compromising pictures of themselves where teachers, bosses and significant others can see them.
* {{Serial Killer}}s and some rapists tend to keep trophies from their victims. This is sometimes their undoing.

* Being German, the Stasi of East Germany did the same thing as the Nazis mentioned above. They also tried to shred at least some of it to - mostly - no avail. The paperwork used by the Stasi obviously served a practical function in the running of a PoliceState, since the files, information and evidence accumulated provided a stable database of blackmail. It's just that nobody expected the GDR to collapse and their legacy to be discredited.

** The other reason why the paperwork exists is that the Nazis believed that their actions were legal and sanctioned, and the best way to give those actions that appearance was, ''via paperwork''. The paperwork was also necessary since the Holocaust also used inmates and victims as chattel slavery for various corporations and factories both in Nazi Germany and the Generalgouvernment (Nazi-Occupied UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}), and these organizations were run with the usual diligence and order. None of them expected that this evidence would become incriminating after it stopped being necessary.

* UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, after the war, the Allies were astonished at the amount of evidence and paperwork related to UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, they were able to uncover. The sheer amount of incriminating evidence pretty much made the convictions at the Nuremberg Trials a foregone conclusion.

This trope can be justified for fairly mundane reasons. Stuff that would be considered incriminating evidence after a crime, such as bills and receipts for certain tools and implements, would be a mundane object before the crime. Likewise, people who plan to do something illegal don't expect to get caught, so they never consider deleting or destroying evidence as necessary until it's too late. In addition there is the case of AbsenceOfEvidence, where if you don't have paperwork or implements connecting you or associating you in a certain place or time, it can lead investigators to conclude that you destroyed evidence, provided you don't have an iron-tight allibi. And you know what helps maintain an allibi? [[ShapedLikeItself Paperwork that connects you to a certian time and place]]. Likewise if you are working with a group of fellow criminals and associates, some form of incriminating record will be kept, if only as a form of insurance or mutual blackmail.

** The other reason why the paperwork exists is that the Nazis believed that their actions were legal and sanctioned, and the best way to give those actions that appearance was, ''via paperwork''. The paperwork was also necessary since the Holocaust also used inmates and victims as chattel slavery for various corporations and factories both in Nazi Germany and the Generalgouvernment (Nazi-Occupied UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}), and these organizations were run on the usual GermanEfficiency of diligence and order. None of them expected that this evidence would become incriminating after it stopped being necessary.

This trope can be justified for fairly mundane reasons. Stuff that would be considered incriminating evidence after a crime, such as bills and receipts for certain tools and implements, would be a mundane object before the crime. Likewise, people who plan to do something illegal don't expect to get caught, so they never consider deleting or destroying evidence as necessary until it's too late. In addition there is the case of AbsenceOfEvidence, where if you don't have paperwork or implements connecting you or associating you in a certain place or time, it can lead investigators to conclude that you destroyed evidence, provided you don't have an iron-tight allibi. Likewise if you are working with a group of fellow criminals and associates, some form of incriminating record will be kept, if only as a form of insurance or mutual blackmail.

Generally a subtrope of someone simultaneously holding the VillainBall ''and'' the IdiotBall. Typically, one can expect the person to be a SmugSnake, thus making his [[LaserGuidedKarma eventual downfall]] all the more satisfying. If an underling does it, expect the ManBehindTheMan to make sure [[YouHaveFailedMe he doesn't get a chance to do it twice]].

* UsefulNotes/RichardNixon and the Oval Office recordings.

* The Nazis; after the war, the Allies were astonished at the amount of evidence and paperwork related to the Holocaust they were able to uncover. The sheer amount of incriminating evidence pretty much made the convictions at the Nuremberg Trials a foregone conclusion.
** 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.
* Being German, the Stasi of East Germany did the same thing as the Nazis mentioned above. They also tried to shred at least some of it to - mostly - no avail.

* Averted in ''TheWire''; most criminals are always shown dumping their guns into storm drains or, if they can't do that, wiping them with their shirts and throwing them away. Even the otherwise dumb-as-bricks ones are smart enough to listen to their cleverer colleagues and dump their guns. One plot, in fact, revolves around an evidence-dumping gone wrong (one character throws his guns into a harbor, but they land on a barge). The only time a criminal retains his gun is because he has a particular attachment to the weapon, a chromed Makarov, and ends up with life without parole for his sentimentality.

* Occasionally happens to some ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' villains, who leave out clues all over the place for meddling kids to find.

* 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.

* ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine'': Adam keeps a box marked "Cincinnati" in his closet, which is apparently evidence of a shameful and shocking NoodleIncident. His friends are horrified that he'd not only keep whatever is inside the box, but plainly mark it "Cincinnati." Adam protests that he can't just throw something like ''that'' away, and he had to mark it so he'd know which box it's in.

* The Nazis, after the war, the Allies were astonished at the amount of evidence and paperwork related to the Holocaust they were able to uncover. The sheer amount of incriminating evidence pretty much made the convictions at the Nuremberg Trials a foregone conclusion.

* A heroic subversion in ''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.]]]]

* In ''The Fourth Protocol'' by FrederickForsyth, a jewel thief plans to burn a briefcase from his latest job (and his fence [[LampshadeHanging scolds him for still having it]]). But its 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]].

* An episode of ''Series/ThePersuaders'' involved a crucial piece of evidence that the culprit couldn't work the will to destroy, despite his henchman's urging: A gift by AdolfHitler himself for helping the defeat and surrender of France.

* {{Serial Killer}}s tend to keep trophies from their victims.

** Taken to extreme measures in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'' with The Phantom. [[spoiler:He engineered two bombings, breaking and entering, and a few murders just to get his hands on a piece of evidence that has his blood on it.]]

** Well, they DID start to burn stuff, but only when it was way too late for them.