History Main / ChronicEvidenceRetentionSyndrome

* 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.

* ''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)

* In 1969, Reyna Marroquin was murdered by her boss/lover after she told his wife about the affair and her pregnancy. He stuffed her remains in a barrel, intending to dump it in the ocean. When it proves to heavy to lift, he stashed it in the basement of his house. It remained there for the next ''30'' years, through ''3'' subsequent owners until the fourth one discovered it when he was trying to clean out the crawl space. Within ten days, Ms. Marroquin and her unborn child were linked to the original owner, who AteHisGun when confronted by the police.

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

* In ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'', SPECTRE not only kept a photograph of their smuggling ship, but they helpfully annotated the fact that they killed the tourist who took it, thus providing a clue for Film/JamesBond as to where to look.

* In ''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.
* 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.
-->'''Clemenza:''' Leave the gun. ''[beat]'' [[ThrowItIn Take the cannoli.]]
* 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.

* In ''The Fourth Protocol'' 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]].

* Played with ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'''s bonus case, "Rise from the Ashes." The culprit keeps a critical piece of evidence hidden away which he's used to blackmail someone into doing his bidding; revealing this evidence when prompted will have [[NonstandardGameOver dire consequences]], but concealing it (temporarily) will force the culprit to tip his hand, and the new context in which the evidence is ultimately presented [[HoistByHisOwnPetard points the guilty finger at him instead]].
* Noticeable in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. Whenever you get a quest to investigate someone, you usually just need to pick the lock of his vault or hack into his computer to find a note explaining his wrongdoing. It's also not rare to find someone's password written in a fairly conspicuous place. One of the most notable instances is Boone's companion quest in New Vegas: the guilty party actually kept a receipt stating how much they were paid for doing the task. It's so obvious that if it weren't for WordOfGod that they're the actually guilty party, the player could be forgiven for assuming that it was actually a frame-up.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': In the third case, one character finds an entire hidden room stacked with revelation-packed documents, left there for no apparent reason. The room holds enough importance that The Mastermind is willing to come out of their hiding place to attack TheHero via TapOnTheHead while in the midst of reading a single page, before running off with the entire bookshelf's worth.

* Played with in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons CRPG 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]].

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-clad 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.

* In both comic and [[Film/{{Watchmen}} movie]] versions of ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', [[spoiler:Veidt for some reason didn't erase the computer files]] that detailed his plan to [[spoiler: frame Dr. Manhattan for causing cancer and leaving Earth]], and information on his ultimate plan, even though the [[spoiler:Manhattan plan]] had been successful (so far as he knew) and he'd already kicked off the second, so there was no need to keep the files at all.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' has an imprisoned rodent explain to his cell mate why this trope was his downfall.

* In ''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.

* In ''The Fourth Protocol'' 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]].

* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Mariah Dillard has a .38 revolver that she has a particular sentimental attachment to. The revolver had been first used in the 1980s by Cottonmouth to kill their uncle Pete, who was raping Mariah. 30 years later, in season 1, she gives the gun to Shades to use to kill Candace Miller. Then in season 2, she uses the gun to execute Bushmaster's uncle Anansi after killing a bunch of people in his restaurant and setting him on fire. Misty Knight makes a connection between the three murders thanks to the ballistics reports, however, linking the gun to Pete's murder is problematic as that case was handled by Misty's late partner Scarfe, who turned out to have been on the Stokes' payroll. When Shades begins cooperating with the police to bring Mariah down, part of the deal is that he lead the police to the revolver as that's the most damning evidence to incriminate Mariah.

** Generally averted with guns. 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. But it's not always perfect. In "Stray Rounds," Bodie and his crew get involved in a shootout with a rival crew in which a kid in an apartment on the corner was hit by a stray. Stringer tasks Bodie with getting rid of the guns, which Bodie does so by tossing the bag over the side of a bridge. Unbeknownst to him, they land on a barge, and are turned over to the police. Fortunately, the guns were wiped clean beforehand, allowing Bodie to resist Cole's attempt to bluff him in the interrogation room.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'', [[spoiler:the Lord Regent has an audio log locked in his personal safe that has him talking about how he not only framed Corvo, but personally released the plague to KillThePoor. You can then [[EngineeredPublicConfession broadcast it throughout the city]], leading to the guards arresting him.]]

** 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.

* 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, mostly to 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.

** Once Nixon realized just how much trouble he was in, and that invoked executive immunity would not keep the tapes out of the hands of investigators, he did try to start deleted 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.

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

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* 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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* Played with in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons CRPG 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 [[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]].

** Generally averted with guns. 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 (Bodie is tasked by Stringer with getting rid of some guns his crew used in a shootout. He throws it over the side of a bridge, and unbeknownst to him, they land on a barge. Fortunately, the guns were wiped clean beforehand so Cole's attempt to bluff Bodie fails). The only time a criminal retains his gun, it's because Bird has a particular attachment to the weapon, a chromed Makarov, and ends up with life without parole for his sentimentality.

* ''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 friend [[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.

* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Mariah Dillard has a .38 revolver that she has a particular sentimental attachment to. The revolver had been first used in the 1980s by Cottonmouth to kill their uncle Pete, who was raping Mariah. 30 years later, in season 1, she gives the gun to Shades to use to kill Candace Miller. Then in season 2, she uses the gun to execute Bushmaster's uncle Anansi after killing a bunch of people in his restaurant and setting him on fire. Misty Knight makes a connection between the three murders thanks to the ballistics reports, however, linking the gun to Pete's murder is problematic as that case was handled by Misty's late partner Scarfe, who turned out to have been on the Stokes' payroll.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' has an imprisoned rodent explain to his cell mate why this trope was his downfall

* In an episode of ''Series/HawaiiFive0'', once the bad guys steal the evidence that Steve [=McGarrett's=] father had been investigating, they keep it for some reason instead of just burning or shredding it, which allows [[spoiler:an employee]] to steal some of it and leak the info back to [=McGarrett=], leading him to the person who ordered his father's death.
* 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.]]]]
* 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 UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself for helping the defeat and surrender of France.
* In ''Series/TheBlacklist'', the Stewmaker's entire job is to completely destroy the evidence of other people's crimes, but he still compulsively collects souvenirs from each job that he does.
* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Mariah Dillard has a .38 revolver that she has a particular sentimental attachment to. The revolver had been first used in the 1980s by Cottonmouth to kill their uncle Pete, who was raping Mariah. 30 years later, in season 1, she gives the gun to Shades to use to kill Candace Miller. Then in season 2, she uses the gun to execute Bushmaster's uncle Anansi after killing a bunch of people in his restaurant and setting him on fire. Misty Knight makes a connection between the three murders thanks to the ballistics reports, however, linking the gun to Pete's murder is problematic as that case was handled by Misty's late partner Scarfe, who turned out to have been on the Stokes' payroll.
* ''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 friend [[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.

* ''Film/TheDeparted'' reveals in the finale that mob boss Costello had recorded all his conversations with TheMole [[spoiler:Colin Sullivan and gave instructions on his death to his lawyer to send the evidence to Costigan. The evidence was mutually self-incriminating and Costello created the records for the sake of ''insurance''.]]

* Lampshaded and averted in ''Film/TheGodfather'', 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.
--> "Leave the gun, take the cannoli."

** Generally averted with guns. 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.
** ''Narrowly'' averted when Stringer forms his "co-op". In his spare time from being TheDragon for a drug gang, Stringer is taking business classes at the community college. When he has to step up and lead the gang for a time, he applies his education, going so far as to hold "staff meetings" for the dealers that are conducted according to ''Robert's Rules of Order''. Then he takes it further, convincing the city's other kingpins to join him in a co-op so they can get a bulk rate on shipments of drugs and reduce the violence. At the first meeting, he notices his assistant Shamrock writing on a legal pad.

* In ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'', SPECTRE not only kept a photograph that they killed a couple for accidentally taking, but they helpfully annotated the back that they killed the couple for taking it, thus providing a clue for Film/JamesBond as to where to look.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}'''s third case, one character finds an entire hidden room stacked with revelation-packed documents, left there for no apparent reason. The room held enough importance that The Mastermind was willing to come out of their hiding place to attack TheHero via TapOnTheHead, who was in the midst of reading a single page before running off with the entire bookshelf's worth.

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]]. Compare this trope to OrgyOfEvidence (where the excessive number of clues in a crime scene alerts investigators that they are being misdirected).

* UsefulNotes/RichardNixon and the Oval Office recordings. In this case, Nixon was under the belief that as a president he had diplomatic immunity and that obviously these tapes would never be revealed to the people.

* ''ComicBook/TheFarSide'' has an imprisoned rodent explain to his cell mate why this trope was his downfall

* Lampshaded and averted in ''TheGodfather'', 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.

* 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.]]]]

* Noticeable in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. Whenever you get a quest to investigate someone, you usually just need to pick the lock of his vault or hack into his computer to find a note explaining his wrongdoing. It's also not rare to find someone's password written in a fairly conspicuous place.

* Averted in ''Series/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.

* 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) install these recording measures? Because ''they believed they were untouchable''.