History Main / InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers

%%* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' has this as the EvilPlan.

[[quoteright:183:[[Film/BabySnatchers https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/baby_snatchers.png]]]]

* Laird Barron's recurring villains of his {{Cosmic Horror Stor|y}}ies, known primarily as the "Children of the Old Leech" or "Those Who Dwell in the Cracks", which are prominently featured in ''Literature/TheCroning'', ''The Broadsword'', and ''The Men from Porlock'', frequently indulge in this. Being intergalactic parasites and {{Emotion Eater}}s, they derive pleasure from subsiding on human anguish and fear, and they consider the uncomprehending fear a human infant or a child feels while being eaten to be one of the most delicious tastes they know of. While the Children mostly engage in the snatching itself by proxy, demanding a BabyAsPayment whenever a human strikes [[DealWithTheDevil a bargain]] with them (as they find the distress incurred in a human upon being asked this price to be pretty tasty too), they are not above personally stealing a child on occasion if it happens to strike their fancy.

* The Little Man (a.k.a. The Coachman) from ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio''. He lures children to a place without schools, parents, and annoying rules. In this place, you will have a lot of fun, but [[PleasureIsland you will have to pay dearly for that fun]]... as a donkey, forever and ever, unless you count with a fairy.
* The Other Mother from ''Literature/{{Coraline}}''.

* Early on in ''Literature/TheChosen1997'', Rashel kills a vampire who has been specifically targeting [[EatsBabies young children]]. Because he's a vampire, no one will ever find out what really happened to the missing children - the only comfort is that other kids will be safe. Given her own childhood trauma involving vampires, Rashel is only too happy to take him out.
* Inverted in ''Literature/TheSecretOfPlatform13'' by Creator/EvaIbbotson: A baby from an island full of supernatural beings is snatched by a normal human woman. To be fair, the baby is human too--but he's also the island's Prince. The main plot is citizens from the Island coming up to London to get the Prince back. [[spoiler:The confusion comes when they mistake the kidnapper's ''actual'' son for the Prince, who has instead become a servant]].
* The Hadals, a distinct human race living BeneathTheEarth in Jeff Long's novels ''Literature/TheDescent'' and ''Deeper'' respond to an attempted genocide perpetrated by the surface-world humans by kidnapping dozens of children from the United States during Halloween both as retribution, and in order to replenish their fallen numbers. Adoption into the Hadal society involves extended ritual mutilation and rapes, and the conditions in their caves cause severe cancerous physical deformations, most notably growth of horns, with the added possibility of brain damage.
** On the plus side, they are extremely long-lived, have a healing factor, and have a number of strange Hadal powers, so it's not[[CursedWithAwesome that bad]]
* ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'', being based on TheFairFolk legends, references [[ChangelingTale the folklore version of this]] -- elves are known to have a habit of stealing children, and while they aren't seen to do it in the book itself, the mere possibility is [[BerserkButton so infuriating]] to the [[BewareTheNiceOnes usually laid-back]] [[MamaBear Nanny Ogg]] that she actually (if half-jokingly) suggests ColdBloodedTorture. Later, in ''Literature/TheWeeFreeMen'', their child-stealing ways get actual page time.
* The climax of the first ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book involves [=ShadowClan=] stealing kits from [=ThunderClan=].
* A background mention in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings,'' when Gandalf describes how Gollum's presence is felt as he makes his way across Middle-Earth -- as a shadow in the night that climbs into nests to find eggs, burrows into dens to find the young, slips through windows to find cradles.
* Two of the paintings described in "Literature/PickmansModel" imply that the ghouls are at least partially responsible for [[ChangelingTale the changeling myth]] and that the stolen children will themselves become ghouls.

* In ''Literature/TheWitches'' the titular witches kidnap children and change them into animals or other things like a living painting, a stone statue, or a hotdog, their ultimate plan is to give all children in England enchanted chocolate that will turn them into mice and be killed by their parents and teachers.
* Laird Barron's recurring villains of his {{Cosmic Horror Stor|y}}ies, known primarily as the "Children of the Old Leech" or "Those Who Dwell in the Cracks", which are prominently featured in ''Literature/TheCroning'', ''The Broadsword'', and ''The Men from Porlock'', frequently indulge in this. Being intergalactic parasites and {{Emotion Eater}}s, they derive pleasure from subsiding on human anguish and fear, and they consider the uncomprehending fear a human infant or a child feels while being eaten to be one of the most delicious tastes they know of. While the Children mostly engage in the snatching itself by proxy, demanding a BabyAsPayment whenever a human strikes [[DealWithTheDevil a bargain]] with them (as they find the distress incurred in a human upon being asked this price to be pretty tasty too), they are not above personally stealing a child on occasion if it happens to strike their fancy.

* Two of the paintings described in Creator/HPLovecraft's "Pickman's Model" imply that the ghouls are at least partially responsible for [[ChangelingTale the changeling myth]] and that the stolen children will themselves become ghouls.

Losing a child is the worst nightmare of many parents. Creators play into this fear by creating characters that steal children for a living. [[AliensAreBastards Aliens]], [[TheFairFolk evil elves/fairies]], [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]] and other inhuman creatures are notorious for this. If a human does this (e.g., HumanTraffickers), chances are they're a very special kind of evil character, because ChildrenAreInnocent. Speaking of human perpetrators, this trope is unfortunately also associated with RoguishRomani.

* In the {{Non serial|Movie}} ''Manga/CaseClosed'' movie, ''[[Anime/DetectiveConanFilm06ThePhantomOfBakerStreet The Phantom of Baker Street]]'', the new virtual reality gaming system about to be released goes insane and takes captive the children chosen to beta test it. It only will agree to let them all go if one of them can beat the game, and will kill them all if they all fail.

* The appropriately named Kryb, from ''ComicBook/GreenLantern''.
* Free Country from "The Children's Crusade" arc that ran through the Creator/VertigoComics annuals in 1993-94.
* At the end of ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'', Joker does this. Interestingly, he doesn't harm a single one, but [[spoiler: he does murder Commissioner Gordon's wife, who found him and tried to stop him. Which was probably his goal all along, to make Gordon snap and kill him.]]

* In ''ComicBook/CourtneyCrumrinAndTheNightThings'', the many species of FairFolk in the area run regular businesses in which they abduct children and sell them to other Night Things. It's very creepy when it's revealed that pretty much no one even bothers saving the children anymore, and just relies on the parents to be too oblivious to realize that they've now got a [[ChangelingTale changeling]]. The good news is that from what is shown, the Night Things that take in human children really do raise them as their own. Though FridgeHorror does set in when you remember that [[spoiler:one Night Thing tricks a child into entering their oven, for the purpose of ''cooking him alive''.]]
* In ''ComicBook/TarotWitchOfTheBlackRose'', [[OurFairiesAreDifferent fairies]] would kidnap children from their cribs and leave behind "replacements" in the form of logs or other useless things. A dark faerie tried to do this to Tarot when she was a baby, but she was protected by magic. Tarot would encounter that same faerie in adulthood, saving another baby from such a fate.
* Malekith in Marvel Comics taunts Tony Stark with the knowledge that a regular Dark Elf pastime is kidnapping children from Midgard for sport. This backbites, however, as Tony had just learned he was adopted and he's so outraged he designs an armor made to exploit Elves' weakness to ColdIron and hunt his court down. This becomes a ChekhovsGun when the arc ends with one of his minions delivering an EnfanteTerrible that mysteriously went missing in an earlier arc to him.

* Mr Baek from ''Film/SympathyForLadyVengeance''. Also a serial child murderer; he kidnaps children for the purpose of videotaping their murders.

Losing a child is the worst nightmare of many parents. Creators play into this fear by creating characters that steal children for a living. [[AliensAreBastards Aliens]], [[TheFairFolk evil elves/fairies]], [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]] and other inhuman creatures are notorious for this. If a human does this (ie, HumanTraffickers), chances are they're a very special kind of evil character, because ChildrenAreInnocent. Speaking of human perpetrators, this trope is unfortunately also associated with RoguishRomani.

Losing a child is the worst nightmare of many parents. Creators play into this fear by creating characters that steal children for a living. [[AliensAreBastards Aliens]], [[TheFairFolk evil elves/fairies]], [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]] and other inhuman creatures are notorious for this. If a human does this, chances are they're a very special kind of evil character, because ChildrenAreInnocent. Speaking of human perpetrators, this trope is unfortunately also associated with RoguishRomani.

** In Season 2's "Stolen Lullaby", the baby of a teen mother (played by Creator/DanicaMacKellar) is abducted by a black market baby ring and illegally adopted by a mayoral candidate and Walker has to find the people responsible and reunite the infant with its mother.

** In Season 2's "Stolen Lullaby", the baby of a teen mother is abducted by a black market baby ring and illegally adopted by a mayoral candidate and Walker has to find the people responsible.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims 1'', this happens thanks to some EarlyInstallmentWeirdness. Babies are tied to the bassinet which is considered an object by the game's code. Burglars are programmed to steal objects. [[NightmareFuel You can see where this is going...]] Thankfully they usually ''won't'' do this since the player will probably have more expensive item(s) to steal, but if a player is doing a poverty or rags-to-riches challenge and has a baby, a burglar might in fact ''steal the baby''.

* This is the premise of ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'': the player characters were all snatched by the True Fae as babies, and are now on the run from their kidnappers.

* A quest in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has you save children that were stolen by the Arrakoa. The players also get their turn at this trope for a quest that requires you to kidnap baby Wolvar so that the Tuskarr can preserve their species... Usually after you [[WhatTheHellHero kill their mothers in front of them]]... Yeah.
* [[spoiler:Father-Mother]] from ''VideoGame/ZenoClash''.
* Kamek and his Toady minions from the ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' series; first they attacked the delivery stork in the first game (and Yoshi and such), then stole every child in the nearby town in the DS sequel while looking for the 'Star Children'.
* The events of ''VideoGame/DustyRagingFist'' is kicked off by a series of mass kidnappings, where a mysterious entity simply called the Ancient Darkness stole every child in Double Bill Town, except for a boy named Elijah who begs the heroes for help. [[spoiler:Except it turns out Elijah is none other than the Ancient Darkness himself, in disguise and using the heroes to get rid of obstacles]].
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' has goblin snatchers, who kidnap children from other races. Strangely, it's emerged that children who get kidnapped by goblins are perfectly happy, and are raised as though they were the goblins' own. Goblin settlements tend to be very racially diverse as a result, and they have a reputation for EqualOpportunityEvil.

* In the casual adventure game ''VideoGame/NightmareRealm'', mysterious cloaked entities called Extractors abduct children at the stroke of midnight of the night before their 7th birthdays, drain away the children's creativity, and use it as a power source for their otherworldly civilization. Less harsh than most examples in that the children are returned physically unharmed, but they never regain the same creative spark as they'd exhibited at six.
* The bonus mode on ''VideoGame/IgglePop'' has the Zoogs capturing baby Iggles and trapping them into bubbles.
* In ''VideoGame/SimAnt'', you can steal larvae from the other colony and carry them back to yours, where they'll hatch into your ants. This isn't efficient, but it is fun.