History Main / CleanupCrew

* Unhinged series premise: After one long day of work at her wine shop, Erika head back home in order to spend some time with her husband, only to be meet [[LiteralMetaphor head ]][[AlasPoorYorick on]] with his body in pieces, and his [[CreepySouvenir hands]] stolen by the murderer. After not being able to have other alibi than "just being out of her house" and [[DramaticIrony finding her prints inside it]], Erika is [[TheCorpseStopsHere found]] [[MistakenForMurderer guilty]] and sentenced to serve seven years in [[{{Prison}} prison]]. Once she's finally free she decides to dig into her husband's misterious past in order to find his murderer. His first culprit is one of his collegues, who happened to be a [[LoanShark loan shark]]. After not being able to get much information from their first interaction, Erika pays him another visit only to be greeted by a [[CleanupCrew cleaning service]] [[DismemberingTheBody disposing]] off [[{{Jerkass}} the rubbish]]. Erika is [[ForcedIntoEvil presented]] with the oportunity to join this [[TheMafia particular]] [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits group]] and she must [[EvilMentor learn their]] [[TheCorrupter ways]] if she wants to be able to find any clue that might lead to finding the true murderer and live one more day.

* Unhinged series premise: After one long day of work at her wine shop, Erika head back home in order to spend some time with her husband, only to find him in pieces. After not being able to have other alibi than "just being out of her house" and finding her prints inside it, Erika is found guilty and sentenced to serve seven years in prison. Once she's finally free she decides to dig into her husband's misterious past in order to find his murderer. His first culprit is one of his collegues, who happened to be a loan shark. After not being able to get much information from their first interaction, Erika pays him another visit only to be greeted by a cleaning service disposing off the rubbish. Erika is presented with the oportunity to join this particular group and she must learn their ways if she wants to be able to find any clue that might lead to finding the true murderer and live one more day.

* ''Film/{{Munich}}''. Carl, the most experienced member of the group, works as "sweeper" -- his job is to remove any evidence (such as cartridge cases, though not bodies because the hits are made publicly) left behind by the Mossad hit team. "The Group" also carries out this function, usually by paying a lot more money to someone already in that profession, e.g. hotel staff would be paid to remove a body from a room without anyone noticing (which they already do for non-criminal reasons, say when a guest has a fatal heart attack) and a gravedigger would be paid to dig a hole, put a body in it and keep his mouth shut.

A character or team, usually affiliated to TheMafia, TheMenInBlack, or TheMasquerade, who specialize in crime-scene cleanup, forensic evidence disposal, and/or [[DisposingOfABody body disposal]].

* The forensics department of [[NGOSuperpower The Company]] in ''FanFic/TheReturn'' which exists to maintain TheMasquerade and clean up leftover demon parts and patch up the landscapes.

* The Ministry of Magic in ''Literature/HarryPotter''; if there's a break in the Masquerade they'll swoop in to hide all evidence and wipe the memories of any muggles. An anecdote in the tie-in novel 'Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem' also shows that civilians will get in on the act, and did so when a dragon attacked a muggle beach.

* The ''Literature/PresidentsVampire'' series features one of these as backup to [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Cade]], helping to ensure the maintenance of TheMasquerade.

* To protect TheMasquerade, characters in the ''Literature/YoungWizards'' series have been known to patch up disaster areas by using timeslides, at least once replacing an entire town with a version from an alternate reality [[RetGone where the damage never happened]].

* In the ''Series/AgentCarter'' episode [[Recap/AgentCarterS2E1TheLadyInTheLake "The Lady in the Lake"]], this is the side job of [[spoiler:[[DirtyCop LAPD Detective]] Andrew Henry]], dumping bodies and making "problems" disappear for people wealthy enough to pay.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' had the supernatural Cleaners who were powered by holy & evil together to keep magic a secret. After TheMasquerade was instated after the Salem Witch Trials the Charmed ones caused so many breaches they had to be created.

* Season 2 of ''Series/{{Haven}}'' introduces [[Wrestling/EdgeWrestler Dwight Hendrickson]], a Cleaner who tidies up Trouble related crimes and disasters to keep TheMasquerade.
* In ''Series/{{Helix}}'' this is {{Implied|Trope}} in "274", when CDC veterinary pathologist Doreen and her army liaison Major Balleseros are convinced that one of these has made off with Doreen's dissected monkey corpse, which she's been using to determine the nature of TheVirus outbreak in the private research facility they've been sent to. They suspect the facility's lead scientist, Dr. Hatake, sent a crew to prevent her from discerning the SyntheticPlague's nature, particularly since her necropsy lab appears to have been scrubbed with formaldehyde.

* ''TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness'' tends to have one or two groups per species of supernatural with the job description "Protect TheMasquerade".

** There's also released DLC that places you in the cleanup detail for a temple in the new ''[[VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013 Shadow Warrior]]'' and the workshop from Santa's Rampage.

** In ''Railgun'', when Mikoto sees her clone brutally murdered by Accelerator, she tries to fight him. Just as things are starting to get ''really'' bad for her, a few dozen more clones arrive for the cleanup, and convince Accelerator that the experiment cannot be interrupted by an unscheduled fight. Mikoto is broken even further by seeing her clones cleaning up the area as casually as if it's an unimportant demolition project.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': The Eraser was a one-shot villain who specialized in making the evidence of others' crimes disappear, for a small percentage of the take. And [[TheGimmick because he's a Batman villain]], he does this while dressed in a yellow pin-stripe suit and a cylindrical pink mask that makes him look like a walking #2 pencil.

* An especially disturbing version turned up in ''Comicbook/ThePunisherMAX'' comic, with plenty of Gorn-y detail on what goes into dismembering a corpse for disposal.
* The first ''Comicbook/SinCity'' story actually depicts corrupt cops and federal agents as clean up crews. They pop up in two scenes and are promptly beaten down by the protagonist.

* Jimmy Natale, the sixth Vulture from ''Franchise/SpiderMan'', used be one of these, but got tired of cleaning up sloppy mistakes. He found someone with the technology to manufacture supervillains and approached his bosses with the idea of creating their own Vulture to "[[YouHaveFailedMe thin the herd]]" and discourage screw-ups. Unfortunately, he failed to notice that ''he'' had all the qualities he suggested they look for. Next thing you know, he's a flying, acid-spitting monster.

* Marvel's various ''ComicBook/DamageControl'' limited series were about the wacky misadventures of a cleanup crew. Their job was to clean up the aftermath of the various (and numerous) super-battles in the MarvelUniverse; HilarityEnsues when abandoned bits of AppliedPhlebotinum are picked up, superweapons are accidentally activated, and super-villains won't pay their bills. Averts this trope throughout, despite being (at various times) co-owned by The Kingpin and a CorruptCorporateExecutive.

** Her boss, Matthew McMahon does the explicit part of the job, getting rid of the bodies.

* In ''Manga/ACertainScientificAccelerator'', Scavenger is a gang employed by Academy City's Board of Directors to swoop in after battles to terminate stragglers and witnesses.

** The title character finds that befriending a spaceship with a powerful AI and drone units has advantages for this trope. The climax of ''Artificial Condition'' ends with a CorruptCorporateExecutive dead, and several members of her staff killed or unconscious. The SentientShip remote-pilots her shuttle into its docking area, wipes the shuttle's memory, sends a faked message from one of the dead men to lull suspicion, and sends drones to clean and sterilize the shuttle which is then remote-piloted to a place where the survivors can seek medical care and decide what, if anything, they are willing to tell the authorities.