History Main / FindingTheBug

* ''ComicBook/{{Tintin}}'': In ''Tintin and the Picaros'', Tintin quickly deduces that the hotel in San Theodoros is bugged, and points out microphones and hidden cameras to Captain Haddock.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': In in the [[Rule34 h-doujin]] "Spy x Sex," Yuri gets to regret hiding several microphones in the Forgers' apartment in order to expose Loid as an abusive husband, and thus [[MurderTheHypotenuse have a legitimate excuse to have him executed]] . Loid found the microphones, [[RightForTheWrongReasons thinking Yuri wants to expose him]] as [[DeepCoverAgent Twilight]], but since he can't destroy the microphones or jam their signals without exposing himself as a spy, he asks Yor to sleep with him in order to get Yuri off his back. Loid's plan was to jam the microphones after he asked Yor to sleep with him, thinking Yuri would shut off his radio not wanting to hear his sister's answer, allowing Loid to destroy the microphones and have Yuri blame the lack of signal on equipment failure when he turned his radio back on. However, before Loid had a chance to get work on the radios, for the sake of [[MarriageOfConvenience his fake marriage/Operation Strix]] he had to apologize to Yor for pressuring her to have sex, [[ParalyzingFearOfSexuality since she freaked out and locked herself in her room]]. However, when she told him Camilla told her that he would leave her because she can't satisfy him, [[TheirFirstTime they spend their first night together as husband and wife]]. Eventually Loid notices that his portable jammer ran out power, and Yuri is shown crying inconsolably, having heard his beloved older sister and her husband go at it. After Loid tries to go back to his room to sleep, [[ComeBackToBedHoney Yor pins him down on the bed]], and [[BluffWorkedTooWell the narrating text mentions he was too exhausted to go to work the next day]].

* ''Film/TheBoysFromBrazil'': Nazi hunter Gorin has planted a homemade transmitter beneath a staircase in the room where Nazi officers and agents are meeting. By chance, a servant boy tunes his portable radio to the same frequency, and a Nazi aide recognizes the signal. He whispers this news to Doctor Josef Mengele, who's chairing the meeting. "Find it," Mengele hisses, then rises to his feet and roars to everyone present, "FIND IT!" Indeed, the Nazis do find it, and soon determine how it got there.

* ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'': James Bond arrives at a hotel and checks in. He's shown to a nice room, and once the porter leaves, begins inspecting the room for transmitters. Bond finds one behind a painting, and detects another inside the room's telephone. He phones the front desk to ask for another room.

* ''{{Film/Oldboy|2003}}'': Oh Dae Su mentions wanting to chop off Mr. Park's hand. Later, the villain sends him Mr. Park's severed hand in a box. This causes Oh Dae Su to realize he is bugged and go to a professional to find it. It was located in the heel of his shoe.

* ''Film/{{Sanctuary|2022}}'': Rebecca tells Hal that she's been secretly recording their sessions together. Hal starts tearing apart the entire hotel room with Rebecca telling him he's getting hotter or colder. He gives up before he finds it.

* James Bond continues his practice of finding bugs in ''Film/AViewToAKill''. While pretending to be a racing horse enthusiast visiting Max Zorin's thoroughbred sale, Bond and his associate speak as a snooty employer and his hapless valet while covertly scanning the room for bugs. Once they find a bug, they leave a tape player to continue the fake conversation while the men step out onto the room's balcony to have a real conversation.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'': PlayedWith. Hermione wants to know how Rita Skeeter can keep getting the private information she's writing about, and Harry suggests that she's using bugs. Hermione investigates and does indeed find a bug... [[LiteralSurveillanceBug literally]]. Rita Skeeter turns out to be an animagus who can transform into a beetle, and Hermione eventually captures her in beetle form and keeps her in a jar.

* In the first episode of ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'', Hughie attempts to bug the bathroom in the Seven's suite in Vought Tower but is immediately found out because Translucent was using his {{invisibility}}'s PowerPerversionPotential to peep on people in the bathroom, and spots him planting it.

** In "Blood Money", Walt gets suspicious when [[spoiler:his copy of ''Literature/LeavesOfGrass'' is missing, and even more so when he's told Hank didn't go to work all week]]. On a hunch, he checks his car and finds the tracker [[spoiler:they used on Gus' car several months ago. At that point he realizes with dread that Hank has discovered his criminal double life]].
* ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': In "Under the Gun", Beckett and Castle are at the office of a murdered bail bondsman, investigating, when Beckett's radio emits high-pitched static. Using the radio and the volume of the static as a guide, they discover a bug hidden in the bondsman's calculator. It later turns out to have been planted by the guy's wife, who overheard him planning to cut her out of a million dollars in jewels being recovered from a robbery, and she murdered him for it.
* ''Series/{{Columbo}}'': In "The Most Crucial Game", Columbo notices that a strange sound can be heard on the radio in Hanlon's office whenever the phone is used, realizing that this means the phone was bugged. [[spoiler:Later in the episode, he deduces that Hanlon had also discovered the bug through the same method and incorporated it into his FakeAlibi.]]
* ''Series/JackRyan'': In "Cargo," Harriet pulls a HoneyTrap on Jack, seducing him to plant a bug in his hotel room. In "Tertia Optio," her cover is blown as they run into each other while investigating the same cargo ship. Next time they meet, Jack hands her a drink with her own listening device in it.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' has the episode "Gone" in which three rich teenagers rape a girl and murder her. They go to extreme lengths to ensure they won't get caught, including [[spoiler:murdering the hesitant member of the trio and bribing a court officer to bug the judge's private chambers]]. Thanks to TARU tech Morales, they're able to find the bug and bring the remaining members to justice for their crimes.

** In the pilot episode, "The Nigerian Job", the mark, Victor Dubenich, discovers a bug with a flashing light as he expects the team is trying to get back at him for trying to kill them instead of paying them for services rendered. [[spoiler:[[KansasCityShuffle They wanted him to find that one]], as it gave him enough rope to hang himself when he thought he was being clever.]]

* In Season 2 of ''Series/{{Preacher|2016}}'', Tulip finds a bug planted by The Grail in her hotel room. Cassidy finds out when Tulip shows him, much to his dismay.
-->'''Cassidy:''' Jesus… God, I think I masturbated in here!\\

* ''Series/TheSopranos'': In "Funhouse", Tony has a food poisoning-induced fever dream where [[DreamingTheTruth his subconscious convinces himself]] that Big Pussy has become a government informant. He immediately acts on this personal revelation, making up an excuse to invite himself to Pussy's house, and then saying he needs to use the bathroom due to his lingering food poisoning, but is in reality searching the bedroom for a wire. Tony finds it hidden in a secret compartment inside a cigar box, confirming beyond a doubt what he had already known deep down, but refused to accept.

* Some books in the ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' universe (e.g. Shadows of War) describe disposable bugs being planted throughout an area, waiting in a passive mode in order to avoid being detected and therefore avert the trope. When they detect something interesting and broadcast, their presence would be detected and therefore would be removed (or run out of batteries). In actual game terms, if an enemy has the cheek to deploy Remote Sensors on the battlefield, finding and destroying them becomes a game of 'find and squash the bug,' as Mechs and vehicles can destroy any Remote Sensor pods. Doing this requires a unit to either spend time shooting it or expend an additional movement point, presumably to reflect the act of finding and stepping on/running over the offending detection pod. Infantry has the luxury of turning their guns on any pods they find in passing, so deploying lots of inexpensive and plentiful infantry teams to find Remote Sensors is a viable counter-strategy.

* ''VideoGame/NicktoonsUnite'': Near the end of the game, Jimmy Neutron figures out that the way Professor Calamitous stole his portal technology is spying on him through a flea bot on Goddard. The heroes shrink down to battle the flea bot and trace its signal back to Calamitous.
* The scavenger hunt in ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'' has you looking for an "Enemy Listening Device" planted by a rival organization known as the Gastronauts; [[spoiler:Raz can't find it until the postgame, as it's located in Artifact Storage in the Motherlobe, in a room that has to be unlocked by the Projection power.]]
* This is a key gameplay mechanic for both sides in ''VideoGame/RainbowSixSiege''; attackers need to wipe out cameras throughout the map in order to avoid detection by the defender team, as dead defenders can still spectate through cameras and help their team. Defenders, meanwhile, need to stop remote-controlled drones sent in by the attacking team from discovering the location of the objective they're defending.
* One side mission type in ''VideoGame/InfamousSecondSon'' is you finding and destroying hidden cameras. Your phone patches into its feed and you have to determine where it is from that.

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': PlayedForLaughs in "In Like Ed," where Ed, Edd, and Eddy pretend to be spies to uncover what Kevin is up to. At one point, they hit upon the idea of tracking his movements with a hidden camera... unfortunately, they ask [[DumbMuscle Ed]] to take care of it. Cue Kevin walking out of his house and immediately seeing a camcorder (complete with tripod) [[PaperThinDisguise "disguised"]] as a tree--that is, there are a few leaves and branches on top, none of which do anything to conceal the camera.
* In ''WesternAnimation/FreakyStories'', "The Rug Bug" is about a secret agent disguised as a travelling salesman. Knowing the room he's staying in is bugged, he checks through multiple items, finding various cameras and infrared devices hidden through them, down to a lens in the complimentary toothpaste. However, he notices a very obvious and stuck bolt on the floor. Turns out, it's not a bug. [[FallingChandelierOfDoom It's the deadbolt to the chandelier located in the below floor honeymoon suite.]] [[spoiler:The couple using it are thankfully fine, as it merely crushed their suitcase, which included the wedding dress, a tuxedo...and a high tech spy camera.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': In "Gideon Rises", ConMan Stan's hearing aid keeps picking up feedback from an unknown source. He returns after the climax to reveal to the town that what his hearing aid kept picking up on were the hidden cameras Gideon had bugged them all with, disguised as free Gideon pins, and was using the things he overheard to support his PhonyPsychic scam. Takes a scammer to know a scammer.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': In in the [[Rule34 h-doujin]] "Spy x Sex," Yuri gets to regret hiding several microphones in the Forgers' apartment in order to expose Loid as an abusive husband. Loid found the microphones, [[RightForTheWrongReasons thinking Yuri wants to expose him]] as [[DeepCoverAgent Twilight]], but since he can't destroy the microphones or jam their signals without exposing himself as a spy, he asks Yor to sleep with him in order to get Yuri off his back. Loid's plan was to jam the microphones after he asked to sleep with him, thinking Yuri would shut off his radio not wanting to hear his sister's answer, destroy the microphones, and have Yuri blame the lack of signal on equipment failure when he turned his radio back on. However, before Loid had a chance to get work on the radios, for the sake of [[MarriageOfConvenience his fake marriage/Operation Strix]] he had to apologize to Yor for pressuring her to have sex, [[ParalyzingFearOfSexuality since she freaked out and locked herself in her room]]. However, she told him he would leaver her leave because she can't satisfy him, so they spend their first night together as husband and wife. Eventually Loid notices that his portable jammer ran out power, and Yuri is shown crying inconsolably, and after Loid tries to go back to his room to sleep, Yor pins him down on the bed, and the narrating text mentions he was too exhausted to go to work the next day.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In "Under the Gun", Beckett and Castle are at the office of a murdered bail bondsman, investigating, when Beckett's radio emits high-pitched static. Using the radio and the volume of the static as a guide, they discover a bug hidden in the bondsman's calculator. It later turns out to have been planted by the guy's wife, who overheard him planning to cut her out of a million dollars in jewels being recovered from a robbery, and she murdered him for it.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': In in the [[Rule34 h-doujin]] "Spy x Sex," Yuri gets to regret doing this when he hides several microphones in the forgers apartment in order to expose Loid as an abusive husband. Loid found the microphones thinking Yuri wants to expose him as Twilight, so he asks Yor to sleep with him in order to get Yuri off his back. While Loid's plan was to jam the microphones after Yuri shut off his radio, destroy them and have Yuri blame it on equipment failure when he turned his radio back on. However, before Loid had a chance to get work on the radios he had to apologize to Yor for pressuring her to have sex, and when she told him he didn't want him to leave because she can't satisfy him, so they spend their first night together as husband and wife. Eventually Loid notices that his portable jammer ran out power, and Yuri is shown crying inconsolably, and after Loid tries to go back to his room to sleep, Yor pins him down on the bed, and the narrating text mentions he was too exhausted to go to work the next day.

** In the pilot episode, "The Nigerian Job", the mark, Victor Dubenich, discovers a bug with a flashing light as he expects the team is trying to get back at him for trying to kill them instead of paying them for services rendered. [[spoiler:They wanted him to find that one, as it gave him enough rope to hang himself when he thought he was being clever.]]

* In ''VideoGame/GothamKnights'', The Penguin refuses to give you information on the Court of Owls because they've got his office bugged. You have to investigate his office to find them. When you examine a bugged object, Penguin will brag about it in a subtle hint, prompting your character to examine the object and destroy the bug.

* In WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice, Rogal Dorn is ''not happy'' upon hearing that the Imperial Palace is bugged. Being [[SeriousBusiness Rogal Dorn]], he resorts to literally leave no stone unturned and ''reinstall the continent-sized palace'' to get rid of them.

* In the first episode of ''Series/TheBoys'', Hughie attempts to bug the bathroom in the Seven's suite in Vought Tower but is immediately found out because Translucent was using his {{invisibility}}'s PowerPerversionPotential to peep on people in the bathroom, and spots him planting it.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'': PlayedWith. Hermione wants to know how Rita Skeeter can keep getting the private information she's writing about, and Harry suggests that she's using bugs. Hermione investigates and does indeed find a bug... literally. Rita Skeeter turns out to be an animagus who can transform into a beetle, and Hermione eventually captures her in beetle form and keeps her in a jar.