History Main / MuggedforDisguise

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1481475017006661100
%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.

[[quoteright:320:[[Comicbook/KnightAndSquire https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ks002027_zpsd55ed6f7.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:320:[[SarcasmMode "They'll never suspect a thing!"]]]]

%% Caption selected per above IP thread. Please do not replace or remove without discussion here:
%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900

* In ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' (and the ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' adaptation), Max pulls a random Zentraedi soldier into a bathroom and knocks him out to steal his uniform while trapped onboard an enemy ship. This example is notable for being done with a HumongousMecha against a [[OurGiantsAreBigger giant alien]], meaning Max's ''mecha'' was the one wearing the disguise.
* The novelization of ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' lampshades how impossible this was and what an achievement this was for Max. Doubly so in versions of the universe other than the novel 'verse, which has mental interface controls - in the anime universes, Max is improvising with controls, programs, and likely limb-movement limits that were never intended to allow a mecha to put on clothing!
* Aisha poses as a female wrestler named Firecat in episode 18 of ''Manga/OutlawStar''. After her teammates question her about the outfit, [[BangingForHelp some banging is heard from a nearby locker]], and the ''real'' Firecat falls out BoundAndGagged in her undies.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** In the ''Red/Green/Blue'' arc of ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', Red knocks out a Team Rocket Grunt and steals his uniform to get into their base. Diamond does this as well in his own arc.
** The [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime]] episode "The Punchy Pokémon" has a scene where Jessie and James steal the outfit and Pokémon of a man who was entering a tournament. The real competitor is shown bound and gagged in his underwear before being locked away in a bathroom stall by the villains.
** Team Rocket also does this to a pair of security guards in another episode. While locking the bound and gagged guards in a closet, Jesse and James quip about having caught the men "[[{{Pun}} off-guard]]".
** In the episode "Hatch Me If You Can," Team Rocket traps Nurse Joy in a PitTrap so Jessie can disguise as her and steal Ash's Larvitar, with James dressed up as a generic male doctor. But of course, Brock, being the G-rated LovableSexManiac he is, [[SpotTheImpostor is not fooled by Jessie's Nurse Joy impersonation for a second]] and goes over all the {{Invisible Subtle Difference}}s between the two, including the obvious fact that the mouth on her Nurse Joy mask does not move when she speaks.

* In the ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'':
** In "¥€$," the Chinese assassin Fem kills a pair of bank employees and steals the clothes of one of her victims in order to infiltrate the mansion where her target [[spoiler:(supposedly)]] lives.
** In "Angel's Share", the Major does this to a special forces police officer in London, getting his attention by [[ShowSomeLeg showing some leg (and cleavage)]] before knocking him out and stealing his uniform. It works better than many examples of this trope because the uniform includes a mask attachment that covers most of her face and the body armor is bulky enough to hide her figure.
** In "Lost Heritage," the members of Section 9 operate under the assumption that an assassin is going to use a sniper rifle to kill a visiting Chinese politician. [[spoiler: Togusa then finds a half-naked schoolboy BoundAndGagged in a bathroom stall, which causes Batou to realize that the assassin stole the boy's uniform to get close enough to the politician to stab him to death. Luckily, the Major is able to take him out right before the stabbing can occur.]]

* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'':
** In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Inspector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki steal someone's outfit to enter the Kaiba Corp Grand Championship, in an example that has a surprising amount of similarities to the above example.
** In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', Mukuro Enjo beats up Shira and steals his cloak, leaving him knocked out in his underwear.
* The ''[[Anime/ReadOrDie Read or Dream]]'' manga has a scene where a female villain plans to kidnap a young author by posing as the child's female manager. After the villainess reveals her true identity, the real manager is briefly shown bound and gagged in a bathroom, stripped of the clothing she had been wearing prior to being replaced.

* The final story arc of ''Manga/SoulEater'' features Kilik, Kim, and Ox using the robes of some defeated Arachnophobia grunts to infiltrate one of the madness relay stations.

* Done on a number of occasions in ''Manga/CatsEye''.
** In one episode, Hitomi and Ai use some KnockOutGas on a pair of female wrestlers and steal their costumes and masks. Mitsuko later finds the real wrestlers BoundAndGagged in their locker room.
** In another episode, Hitomi actually does this to a ''[[DisguisedInDrag male]]'' gangster. The man she replaced is shown tied up and gagged in his underwear.
** There are a number of cases where this is also implied (the women often pose as guards or employees at the locations they plan to rob), but not shown.
* Happens in an episode of ''Anime/MichikoAndHatchin'', where Michiko mugs a matador for his costume and mask.

* ''LightNovel/DirtyPair'':
** Yuri does this to an unfortunate train attendant in episode 20 of the anime. Humorously, she [[ApologeticAttacker apologizes to the taped and gagged woman]] before locking her up in a cupboard.
** In the comic, Kei and Yuri knock out a couple of "entertainers" to steal their costumes and sneak aboard a ship. Unfortunately, the "entertainment" they provide involves working as waitresses while dressed in tight PlayboyBunny outfits.
* ''Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman'' has the team members do this frequently. You'd think Galactor would at least ditch the face-hiding helmets. Bonus points for the ten-year-old member wearing an ''adult''-sized uniform -and the most any goon notes is he's 'a little scrawny'.
* In the ''Manga/HauntedJunction'' manga, Kazumi and Mutsuki do this to two kids from a ''very'' prestigious art school to help Haruto when he's he's investigating [[spoiler: the mysterious organization that is turning the usually friendly school spirits against the students and school staff.]]
* ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
** In the "Blue Mermaid Heist" story, Kaitou does this to Masumi Sera, leaving her BoundAndGagged in a bathroom stall. This proves [[SpottingTheThread to be crucial to how Conan actually solves the case]] since Kaitou didn't realize that [[{{Bifauxnen}} the teenager he was impersonating was a girl]]. It was accidentally out of character for him because he typically copies a woman's clothing beforehand rather than knocking out and undressing her.
** In a much earlier chapter, a crazy woman does this to her former employer's wife. She plans on ambushing and killing the man for firing her, but the bound and gagged wife manages to toss an S.O.S message to Conan and his friends before the killer can carry out the plan.
** This is a hallmark of ''Manga/MagicKaito'' in general. One of the specials has Kid actually pretending that ''he'' was a police officer who was mugged for his outfit, with the real cop kept BoundAndGagged out of sight.

* In an episode of ''Anime/{{Trigun}}'', the heroes rescue and befriend a young girl named Jessica. At the very end of the episode, Nicholas hears some muffled whining and discovers the ''real'' Jessica BoundAndGagged among some rubble. He realizes too late that the "Jessica" Vash had earlier rescued is actually a [[CreepyDoll life-like puppet]] made by [[MarionetteMaster Leonoff The Puppetmaster]], which had stolen Jessica's clothes in order to get close enough to Vash to shoot him. [[spoiler: Brad [[TakingTheBullet Takes The Bullet]] for him and dies]].

* Near the end of ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'', Erika and Itsuki, trying to catch back up to Tsubomi and Yuri, power down and take out a couple of Snackies to steal their uniforms. And despite the fact that you can see that their disguise barely ''works'', it fools the other Snackies until they finally get wise.
* In the anime ''Anime/AgentAika'' (or Aika), episode #4, her partner Rion Aida, was trapped in the ship of Hagen, when she was taken to her room (like a prison) by a blue delmo, Rion is very clever and daring then leverages that is alone with blonde delmo, when the two come into the room, Rion knocks her with some punches (the scene unseen) only the knocks are heard and the cry of the blue delmo, moments after Rion appears at the door wearing blue uniform of the blonde delmo, Rion runs in one direction and then show the scene of blond henchwoman on the floor, tied hands and feet, unconscious and only in underwear, the room door closes, enclosing it and Rion escapes from her cleanly and very easy.
* Variant done in ''Manga/FushiNoRyouken''. The three women ambush and tape up a pair of visiting police officers in order to steal their identities, but they leave them fully clothed.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': After Joseph Joestar knocks down two German guards, he strips them down to their underwear and dons one of the uniforms. Considering his first try was a [[PaperThinDisguise Paper Thin]] HarmlessLadyDisguise, he finds it either "disappointingly easy" or "dropping his self-esteem".
* In ''Manga/YuunaAndTheHauntedHotSprings'' chapter 37, Kogarashi tries to hide from Oboro in the nurse's office, only to see Oboro inside dressed as the nurse. She reveals that she used her [[ThinkingUpPortals portal]] ability to get inside, tie up and gag the real nurse, and then steal her uniform.
* In ''LightNovel/StrikeTheBlood'', Reina arrives in the present ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' style, crouching naked in a ball of lightning. She immediately knocks Yukina out and steals her clothes. Since they are the same size and her face is very similar to Yukina's ([[KidFromTheFuture for a good reason]]), Reina briefly fools the others into believing she is Yukina.
* An InvokedTrope in ''Manga/Golgo13''. Golgo is hired by the CIA to kill a DoubleAgent in a snowy area of Canada. He captures a henchwoman working for the agent, and [[UndressingTheUnconscious leaves her stripped naked]] in a cabin so that she can't escape without [[ExposedToTheElements freezing to death]]. Before leaving, he tasks a local girl with watching the prisoner and pays her with an expensive red coat. The henchwoman quickly knocks the girl unconscious and [[UndressingTheUnconscious steals her clothing]] in order to escape, and heads off to find her boss. While the two of them are fleeing, the woman realizes too late that Golgo planned all of this, and that the red coat was meant to make her stand out as a target against the white backdrop of the terrain. Before she can warn her boss, Golgo kills both of them with a single shot.
* In what is likely an intentional nod to the ''Terminator'' examples listed below, episode 2 of ''Manga/{{Hinamatsuri}}'' opens with Anzu knocking out a group of bikers and stealing the leader's clothing after arriving from the future.

* Two instances in the ''Manga/GetBackers'' manga:
** In the third volume, the Get Backers are tasked with retrieving a priceless violin that's currently under the possession of a mob boss. They decide to take advantage of the fact that he's hosting a party and invited a quintet of musicians to entertain his guests. They enlist the help of Paul, Natsumi, and Hevn to replace the musicians. (They needed to be five, as a quintet is composed of five musicians, and they needed Natsumi and Hevn because two of the musicians were women). They trick the musicians on their way to the mob boss' house by pretending that their car is broken down and, when they pull down to help, they knock them out and steal their clothes, their instruments, and their car. The real musicians are left BoundAndGagged in their undies inside the Get Backers' car. The same thing is hinted to also happen in the anime, but the stripped musicians aren't shown.
** In the next volume, to reach the same mob boss who's playing at a concert, Ban (this time alone) mugs another musician. The man is briefly shown BoundAndGagged in his underwear.
* Episode 6 of ''Manga/HanaukyoMaidTeam La Verite''. In this BaseballEpisode, the maid acting as an umpire is kidnapped (and shown hidden somewhere, tied up and gagged in her underwear), in order to be replaced with a Technology Department robot.
* Najica from ''Anime/NajicaBlitzTactics'' uses this tactic several times over the course of the series when she needs to infiltrate a place owned by a bad guy, knocking out an unfortunate (always female) mook in the process.
** In Episode 5, while boarding the ship of Ricardo Kidel, who has purchased a nuclear missile in the black market with hopes of staging a coup in another country, Najica knocks out a sailor with plastic bullets and steals her uniform.
** In Episode 9, Najica and Lila need to infiltrate a base belonging to a rebel militia group. They knock out two soldiers to steal their uniforms, leaving the two women BoundAndGagged in their underwear inside a guardhouse.

* ''Manga/SPYxFamily'': One instance where Loid is at the aquarium with Yor and Anya has him forced to disguise as a new worker in order to get close to a penguin that swallowed a microfilm. The guy is later seen unconscious in a locker.

* One ''ComicBook/{{Mickey Mouse|ComicUniverse}}'' comic has Mickey get knocked out for his costume by a crook looking to get away. Unfortunately for Mickey, he got EasyAmnesia from the blow and is wearing the crook's old outfit, so the other criminals mistake Mickey for him.
* When the Thuggee cultist Ravan joins the ComicBook/SuicideSquad, he practically brags that he didn't get any blood on the uniforms he has just acquired for the team, leaving Bronze Tiger to remember just what kind of person Ravan is.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} 25'', Crimson Cowl decided to take revenge against the Thunderbolts by creating her own Masters of Evil (the group that the bolts were originally part of) with 25 super-villains. After she captured Moonstone, five bolts decided to infiltrate the group by knocking out five members and stealing their costumes. Charcoal puts on M'Baku the Man-Ape's suit. Songbird is dressed as Lodestone. Jolt is dressed as Joystick. Atlas is Shatterfist, and Hawkeye pulls up the Constrictor's mask.
* During an issue of ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'', Wade and his team of mercenaries are hired to sabotage a satellite by hijacking a space shuttle. At one point, one of Wade's teammates complains about her suit being too bulky. The scene shifts to the cargo hold, where the real astronauts are shown tied up with their mouths taped shut.

* ComicBook/ThePunisher does this in "Round Robin, the Sidekick's Revenge", a six-part story in ComicBook/SpiderMan's comic, ambushing Number III (probably killing him, seeing as this is the Punisher) and taking his robes and cowl to infiltrate [[NebulousCriminalConspiracy the Secret Empire's]] HQ. (He even comments to himself how fortunate it is that the leaders' cowls have synthesizers to disguise their voices when he has to speak to the other leaders of the group.)
* In ''ComicBook/BlackWidow'' (vol. 1) #1, the title heroine's rival, Yelena Belova, tapes up and gags a young flight attendant in an airport restroom in order to steal her uniform. She then stashes the unconscious attendant in an empty stall and scrawls "Out of Order" on the door with lipstick. After wishing the woman "Sweet dreams", Yelena takes her place on a flight so she can spy on the real Widow.

* ''ComicBook/TheBraveAndTheBold'' #166 has a female mercenary being hired to impersonate ComicBook/BlackCanary. The real Black Canary is held bound and gagged in her undies while the impostor dons the heroine's trademark fishnet outfit in order to fool Batman.
* ''ComicBook/{{Femforce}}'':
** Issue #43 contains a scene where [[JunglePrincess Tara]] steals an Amazon uniform in order to infiltrate their base. The woman she ties up appears to have been [[GoingCommando following Joystick's lead]].
** Issue #48 features a scene where Lady Luger yanks a passing woman into an alley so she can appropriate her clothing in order to flee the city undetected.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** Issue #207: [[ComicBook/JeanGrey Phoenix]] sneaks into the Hellfire Club and uses her mind-controlling abilities to put a waitress to sleep. She then steals her uniform so as not to be recognized upon entering the main section of the Club.
** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s [[https://uncannyxmen.net/sites/default/files/images/characters/wolverine/wolv-bigcostume4.jpg short-lived second costume]] was stolen from Fang, a member of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.
** During a story in which the X-Men are out in space and (through a complicated series of events) have traveled back in time to the Skrull homeworld just as it is about to be destroyed by Galactus, Wolverine pulls this again, killing a Skrull who is wearing that same second costume in order to disguise himself as Skrull-Wolverine after he got cut off from the rest of the X-Men. [[spoiler:In a somewhat ironic twist, it is revealed a short time later that that Wolverine was also a Skrull impostor, while the real one had been turned into one of Apocalypse's Horsemen]].

** Kate Bishop does this to Madame Masque in an issue, leaving the villainess bound and gagged with her mouth duct-taped shut. This ends up annoying Masque so much that she becomes Kate's extremely dangerous ArchEnemy out of sheer humiliation.
*** She even revenged herself on Kate by turning the tables on her [[spoiler:(with a GrandTheftMe cloning twist)]] a few years later in Kate's solo Hawkeye series.

* The first ComicBook/BlackOrchid employed this trope quite often. Nearly every one of her adventures had her infiltrating a gang by tying up the leader's girlfriend/secretary/any random bystander and taking her place. Often, her deception would not be revealed until the end of the story, when the real, replaced woman was discovered.
* ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and Obélix do this twice in the album ''Recap/AsterixAndTheGoths'': first with Roman legionaries, then with some Goths (not [[{{Goth}} these ones]]). It gets complicated when the legionaries are found (and assumed to be the Gauls the Romans are looking for), and the Romans immediately start accusing each other of being the Gauls, [[BeleagueredBoss to the considerable chagrin of centurion Cantankerus.]]
-->They're all quite thick, and I'm their leader! *sob!*
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'':
** Happens in the "Femizon" storyline. Black Mamba and Asp mug two female security guards working for Superia, and escape in their outfits. Humorously, the ladies only needed new clothes in the first place because they had opted to give their own costumes to Captain America and Paladin, who needed to disguise themselves as women for a complicated escape plan.
** The Serpent Squad do this to a group of ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} agents in another issue. While stripping the dead woman she plans to impersonate, Sin jokingly mentions that they have to be sure not to get any blood on the uniforms, a detail usually ignored in other instances of this trope.
** In a much earlier issue of ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and ComicBook/TheFalcon'', Madame Hydra did this to Viper after shooting him. She took his CodeName as well in an attempt to claim she was "honoring" his legacy.
* Happened to the hero Marvel hero Torpedo, who was [[KillAndReplace taken out and replaced]] by a female Dire Wraith. After the alien was killed, Torpedo's [[ClothesMakeTheSuperMan suit]] was eventually bequeathed to the ComicBook/NewWarriors member Turbo.
* ''Franchise/GIJoe'':
** In one comic, a female Cobra agent ties up and gags a restaurant hostess and steals her uniform so she can plant a microphone in the General's hat.
** An old issue of ''G.I. Joe: Yearbook'' has Scarlett defeating the Baroness and her mooks offscreen, and then leaving them all bound and gagged in a closet. She strips Baroness of her catsuit and uses it as a disguise in order to rescue her friends.
** ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroIDW'':
*** Issue 184 has Clutch and Rock 'n' Roll infiltrate Cobra by knocking two Cobra soldiers unconscious and taking their uniforms.
*** Dawn disguises herself in issue 239 by putting on the uniform of patrol officer Forester after knocking her out.
* A hallmark of the ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'' series. One story published in an Italian fashion magazine even has Eva knocking out and stealing the clothes of several models. The real models are found bound and gagged in a closet at the end of the story. Notably, this series does ''not'' present the trope as almost harmless as it's usually done: it's still a kidnapping, and victims are often traumatized.
* A ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'' one-shot has a scene where ComicBook/{{X 23}} steals the uniform of a waitress as part of an undercover operation. She tapes the real server's mouth shut and locks her in a closet.
* In an issue of ''[[ComicBook/NewMutants New X-Men]]'', X-23 knocked out Dust and stole her Burqa. It turned out that Dust was about to walk into a trap set by William Stryker, so Laura rendered her unconscious and went in her place. The hail of gunfire that would've killed Dust had no effect on X-23 thanks to her HealingFactor.
* ''ComicBook/{{Venom}}'' #13 has ''another'' X-23 example. This time, she knocks out a cocktail waitress in an elevator and steals her devil girl costume to infiltrate Blackheart's casino.
* Non-enemy variation: R. Crumb's ''ComicBook/FritzTheCat'' is fleeing from the police who busted up a pot party. He spots a drunk rich guy in top hat/monocle/tails and cheerfully escorts him into an alley -- next panel he's greeting his pals in the park in the guy's clothes.
* A particularly unpleasant variation in ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' Volume 1, when Hawley Griffin beats a policeman to death with a brick and takes his uniform. It should be emphasised that 1) Griffin doesn't need a disguise at that point, 2) Griffin ''is invisible'' and so wearing a policeman's actually makes him more conspicuous. He later explains that he was cold.

* Robyn steals a robe from a cultist to infiltrate the Church of Many Eyes in ''ComicBook/GrimmFairyTales Presents: ComicBook/RobynHood'' #7.
* The Chameleon in the original ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comics has done this quite a bit; he does it twice in his debut appearance in the first issue from 1962.
* While driven mad by hunger, ComicBook/{{Venom}} does this to an unfortunate group of bikers in an issue of ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan''.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman''
** ''[[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Wonder Woman Volume 1]]'': In issue #3, Baroness Paula Von Gunther escapes from prison by replacing a guard and stealing her uniform.
** In issue #6, the first appearance of the ComicBook/{{Cheetah}}, the villainess ties up and impersonates an Olympic athlete named Kay Carlton so that she can attend an athletic tournament being held on Paradise Island.
* An example mixed with DisguisedHostageGambit in ''ComicBook/StarWarsDoctorAphra'' #19. [[spoiler: Magna Tolvan swaps clothes with BountyHunter Tam Posla, and leaves him BoundAndGagged for the Rebellion to find while she escapes with Aphra.]]

* ''ComicBook/TheFurtherAdventuresOfIndianaJones'': In #30, Indy snatches a member of a Chinese warlord's army and uses his robe and coolie hat as a makeshift disguise to infiltrate a gathering of rebel soldiers.
* ''Comicbook/TheAdventuresOfTintin'': Late in "Cigars of the Pharaoh", Tintin intercepts a member of the drug-trafficking ring's council and steals their klan-esque uniform. The victim is mentioned "being found unconscious" in a phone conversation that reveals the council is infiltrated but gets no further mention or appearance, including when Tintin dramatically unmasks all others. As a consequence, that person's identity is never revealed to the reader (though Tintin presumably saw their face when he stole their hood).

* In ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', George has to become Bayanis so he and Paul can infiltrate the warehouse. Except that Paul had already wrapped her up in her own robes (well, she tried to order him to kill the others), so all they have to do is strip her, and John immobilizes her in warm ice.
* In ''[[http://wtfbrotha36.deviantart.com/art/Black-Widow-s-Bad-Luck-400148485 Black Widow's Bad Luck]]'', [[ComicBook/BlackWidow the eponymous Avenger]] steals the uniforms of two mooks and an assassin (as well as leaving them BoundAndGagged, or at least knocked out, and stripped to their GoofyPrintUnderwear, including ''swastika''-print panties) as part of a plan to infiltrate the operation of Sin, daughter of the Red Skull, and stop her acquiring a gem that will grant her god-like powers. Unfortunately for Black Widow, she gets caught when the assassin recovers and exposes her, resulting in [[LaserGuidedKarma her being stripped to her 'lucky' Hello Kitty underwear]] (something she had been privately dreading happening).
* [[spoiler: Lupin III does this to Sola-Ui]] in ''Fanfic/JustAnUnorthodoxThief''.
* ''[[Fanfic/MCURewrites Avengers: Civil War]]'': [[spoiler:Sharon Carter infiltrates the Raft Prison where Clint Barton, Sam Wilson, and Scott Lang are being held in order to break them out. She knocks out a female guard and takes her uniform. While in uniform, she plants a device that will disable the cameras, releases Clint, Sam, and Scott, plants several bombs to blow up the prison, and leads them to the getaway helicopter.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie2TheSecondPart'', Wyldstyle beats up one of Queen Waterva's Royal Guards and uses its armor to try and get closer to the altar's sound system. However, Sweet Mayhem sees through Wyldstyle's disguise when she tries a stealth takeout and the two of them have a duel.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'', Little John ambushes the Sheriff of Nottingham and put on his clothes during the jailbreak scene. The Sheriff spends the rest of the climax in his underwear.

* In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', the Joker and his goons do it to an entire police honor guard, then do a spot-on impression of the honor guard -- thus smuggling seven loaded rifles right past every cop in the city and directly up to the Mayor's stage.

* In ''Film/Firestorm1998'', Shaye and his followers steal uniforms from the firefighters they capture: including resident ButtMonkey Sherman, leaving him in his underwear (or naked. He is only seen from the waist up).

* A plot point in ''Film/IronMan3''. [[spoiler: Part of Killian's master plan involves capturing [[Comicbook/WarMachine Rhodey]] and having Eric Savin assume his identity by donning his armor.]]

* In ''Film/PromNight2008'', Fenton escapes from the hotel by donning the uniform of the bellhop he murdered and slipping out during the evacuation.

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmes1932'', Holmes knocks out Hans and takes his welder's outfit-—including full face mask-—and uses it to infiltrate Moriarty's gang.

* During Casey Jones' infiltration of the Foot headquarters in ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990'', Casey does this to a Foot Soldier in order to steal his uniform to blend in with the others and find Danny, who he followed there. The two eventually end up rescuing Splinter, who the Shredder has just ordered killed.

* Two examples in ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'':
** In "Heavy is the Head", Triplett dons Glenn Talbott's stolen uniform in order to gain access to a military base.
** In "Face the Enemy", Agent 33 poses as Melinda May by stripping May of her dress and shoes, as well as a holographic mask to complete the disguise.
** [[spoiler: Happens to poor May ''again'' in the Season 4 winter finale, where it's revealed that she's been knocked out and replaced by a Life Model Decoy.]]

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In "Blindsided", Matt goes to the prison to get information on Wilson Fisk's stay there. Fisk has anticipated Matt would show up and has the guards and inmates in his pocket start a riot in an attempt to kill Matt. While fighting them off, Matt encounters the prison's Albanian mob boss, and convinces him to give up the identity of the man that [[FalseFlagOperation Fisk hired to pay for his own shanking]]. He also convinces the boss to help get Matt out of the prison. To do so, the Albanian boss has one of his men strip the uniform off one of the guards that Matt had earlier disarmed and said inmate then escorts Matt the rest of the way out, fighting through other guards and inmates.

* ''Series/MacGyver1985'':

* In ''Series/MashinSentaiKiramager SpinOff: Yodonna'', Mizuki steals a uniform from a maid in order to sneak into a [[CosplayCafe Maid Cafe]] that's being used as a front for organized crime.

* ''Series/TheNewAvengers'': In "Sleeper", the main bad guy disposes of a visiting scientist and steals his clothes to take his place at a demonstration where he plans to steal the secret weapon.

* ''Series/ThePunisher2017'': To conduct an assassination attempt on Karen Page and Senator Stan Ori, Lewis Wilson kills one of Billy Russo's men and steals his uniform.

* ''Series/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents2017'': When going to the bank to pose as the "consultant" to the Baudelaire will, Count Olaf is exasperated that his acting troupe didn't bring the costumes along, so he has to improvise a disguise by stealing a coat off a mannequin, another man's ascot, a blind man's sunglasses and hat, and lastly a pen from yet another man to etch a false mole on his cheek.

* ''Series/SheSpies'' features a couple of these in the episode "Crossed Out". The first occurs when Shane mugs a prison guard and steals her uniform to escape. Later, during the climax of the episode, Quentin and Cassie are shown eyeing a pair of maintenance workers and are soon shown dressed in their uniforms. Strangely, Cassie's uniform fits her perfectly, despite the fact that she stole it from a grown man.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' - In one episode, Sam and Dean do this to impersonate a pair of SWAT officers and get away from the scene of a crime the police think they committed.

* In ''Series/Titans2018'', Conner/Subject 13 takes the uniform of a guard after breaking out of his pod.

* ''Series/WandaVision'': Jimmy and Monica knock out a few SWORD agents and take their uniforms after Hayward tries to have them escorted off the base outside Westview. Darcy is miffed at them for not giving her a heads up about them having an escape plan.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'':
** One of the missions in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' has Tommy and Lance do this to a pair of police officers for their outfits.
** In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', CJ rubs out a hotel valet for his outfit [[spoiler:in a gambit to plant drugs on a District Attorney's car on behalf of Tenpenny]].
** In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', Franklin does this to an actor for his suit.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' requires you to do this in the second [[PuttingOnTheReich Desian Ranch]] you have to infiltrate. You have to wander around for RandomEncounters after this plot point comes up, and then only the ladies of the group get uniforms because the male ones will always be "Too damaged".
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''
** In one portion of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', Locke has to steal soldiers' and merchants' uniforms in order to get around a town once TheEmpire takes over. Rather than knock them out, though, he just uses the "Steal" command to [[ImpossibleThief snatch the clothes right off their bodies]].
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has a small portion of the game where Selphie and the team she is given are required to dress up as enemy soldiers in order to sneak into a missile base. Somewhat subverted in that they first steal a car, which had the uniforms in the back, rendering the need to knock out guards moot... They do it at the base anyway.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'':
*** Zidane and Blank do this to infiltrate Alexandria Castle at the beginning of the game. Put a stage fight as part of the play, run away from the crowd and into the castle, lure two Pluto Knights that were nearby, knock them out and steal their outfit. When Zidane refuses to wear the helmet because it stinks, Blanks lists all that's wrong with his own armor. Its owner was apparently bigger than the actor...
*** Zidane does it again later; after being denied passage to an elevator in Lindblum Castle, Zidane leads another soldier to a room and mugs him for his outfit, so he can sneak past and meet up with a singing Garnet at the top of the castle.
* ''VideoGame/SanityAikensArtifact'': Chapter 3, where Cain knocks out a guest to take his civilian clothing and sneak into the facility as part of the tour group. It's not explained how this bypassed the [[MoralityChip aggression inhibitor]] which is supposed to knock out Cain when he injures an innocent (even accidentally).
* ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'': An early installment has the player take out a Nazi officer in order to infiltrate a u-boat.
** In ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorRisingSun'', the Singapore mission has Joe and his crew mug a [[ThoseWackyNazis German officer]], and infiltrate a meeting between him and [[BigBad Masataka Shima]], a high ranking Imperial Japanese Navy officer. Joe's cover is blown when the German officer bursts in in his underwear.
* Played straight in the ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' games. Oftentimes, Agent 47 will need to mug several people for their uniforms in order to get to his target. Becomes one of the biggest complaints/sources of jokes about the game. When the Chinese limo driver steps into an alley to take a leak and comes back white, bald, and half a foot taller... [[FailedASpotCheck no-one bats an eye.]]

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'':
** Poor, poor [[{{Buttmonkey}} Johnny Sasaki]]. He doesn't even get GoofyPrintUnderwear.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'': Raikov exists only so that the player can beat up someone who looks just like [[ReplacementScrappy Raiden]] and strip him naked for his uniform.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', you may choose to go to jail if you're caught after committing a crime. Once imprisoned, you can sneak out, kill the Jailor, and don his full guard attire. You can then walk right out of the prison without being confronted. (You'll still have your bounty and can be re-arrested later, however.) Otherwise, with few exceptions, the [=NPCs=] in ''Oblivion'' don't react differently to you no matter what clothes you're wearing. The Guards wouldn't react any differently to you if you were wearing Guard armor or going around stark naked.
** One ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' quest Plays With this trope differently depending on the race of your PlayerCharacter. The quest involves infiltrating the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor]] embassy, during which you have the option to steal and wear a Thalmor uniform. If you are an Altmer (High Elf) then this is played entirely straight, and you can put on the uniform and stroll right inside without issue, and can even take a moment to [[BavarianFireDrill give a couple of low-level Thalmor guards orders]]. Downplayed if you are another type of Elf (or [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orc]]) or one of the human races; if you stray too close to one of the patrolling Thalmor guards, and they'll detect the ruse, but as long as you keep your distance, you can still slip inside unmolested. Completely subverted if you are an [[LizardFolk Argonian]] or [[CatFolk Khajiit]], where, even from a distance, you'll be detected immediately due to your rather obvious tail (not to mention look really ridiculous).
** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'': Many of the base-game zones have quests where you can attack an enemy NPC and steal their outfit to use as a disguise.
* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' takes this to a gruesome extreme: the ones "mugged" for Alex's disguise don't survive the consumption of their DNA.
* ''VideoGame/RadiantHistoria'': Your party does this once as part of a rescue mission. They mug some drunk guards and use the disguises to create chaos among the enemy ranks, leading to the enemy ordering a retreat.

* Not quite a video game, but in the intro of the Cartoon Network game ''Rave Slaves,'' [[WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack Jack]] pulls a passing raver into the bushes and steals his disguise to infiltrate the club where Aku's DJ is hypnotizing the teenagers with evil music.
* Played straight in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. You can steal uniforms from certain organizations, and most {{Mooks}} will take the disguise at face value. Smarter characters, leaders, and guards are more likely to see through it.
* Many, many times in ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'', players acquire an outfit to disguise themselves in unfriendly areas by '[[NeverSayDie beating up]]' enemies. In an aversion of the 'perfect fit' part of the trope, almost no enemies drop all useable parts of the outfit they're wearing -- you have to keep mugging them to collect a fully wearable ensemble.

* In ''VideoGame/KultHereticKingdoms'', the fact that a dying messenger's uniform was taken may not seem very important when it's mentioned, but in fact, it means that the other messenger you find in the forest is actually your quarry in disguise.
* Done in ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'', point for point, to replace the judges during the Canada Games. [[spoiler: Subverted when the boss sees through the disguise.]]
* In the ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' mission "Executive Order", Weaver gets compromised and the base is on high alert, so Mason and Woods kill two guards and take their uniforms to get into the base.

* In the intro to ''Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise'' Ruby LaRouge knocks out a cruise ship hostess in an elevator and steals her uniform.
* ''VideoGame/DesperadosIII'' is a RealTimeStrategy StealthBasedGame that features among its cast Kate, a woman who can disguise herself to distract the male sentries. However, a good chunk of the time, the player needs to have her steal the clothes of another woman (maid or prostitute) beforehand.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* '' WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois'': The good guys take the armor of an evil officer, leaving him bound and gagged.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibleHulk1982'' episode "Enter: She-Hulk" had Rick Jones and Betty Ross knock out a pair of Hydra agents so they could use their uniforms as disguises to sneak past Hydra.

-->'''K:''' Do me a favor and tuck in your face. I don't like myself with a turkey neck.
-->'''J:''' You mean THIS? ''(pulls a DramaticUnmask to reveal his true face)''

** In "¥€$," the Chinese assassin Fem kills a pair of bank employees and steals the clothes of one of her victims in order to infiltrate the mansion where her target [[spoiler: (supposedly)]] lives.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Inspector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki steal someone's outfit to enter the Kaiba Corp Grand Championship, in an example that has a surprising amount of similarities to the above example.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', Mukuro Enjo beats up Shira and steals his cloak, leaving him knocked out in his underwear.
* The ''[[Anime/ReadOrDie Read Or Dream]]'' manga has a scene where a female villain plans to kidnap a young author by posing as the child's female manager. After the villainess reveals her true identity, the real manager is briefly shown bound and gagged in a bathroom, stripped of the clothing she had been wearing prior to being replaced.
* In ''Manga/FairyTail'':

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks "The Daleks"]]: The Doctor and his companions disable their Dalek jailer and Ian wears its shell to enact a TrojanPrisoner escape.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler "Let's Kill Hitler"]]: Turned UpToEleven by River Song when she busts into a large party attended by high-ranking Nazi officials and their wives, forces them ''all'' to strip at gunpoint, and takes her pick of the clothing they discard.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E6TheWomanWhoLived "The Woman Who Lived"]]: A {{Flashback}} reveals that Ashildr [[BeenThereShapedHistory fought at the Battle of Agincourt]]. Because women weren't allowed to fight back then, a cutaway scene shows her donning a male soldier's armour while the unfortunate dude in question is left BoundAndGagged behind some bushes.
** [[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution "Resolution"]]: The villain, [[spoiler:a Dalek recon scout]] [[PuppeteerParasite puppeteering]] an innocent woman, is, while forcing her to [[DrivesLikeCrazy drive recklessly]] towards a location where it can steal alien weaponry, pulled over by a police car. So it kills the two cops and steals the female officer's uniform and the patrol car.

** Near the end of [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS2E2CargoOfDoom "Cargo of Doom"]], it appears that BountyHunter Cad Bane has been killed by clone trooper Denal shortly before the destruction of the Separatist frigate Bane was placed in command of. At the beginning of [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS2E3ChildrenOfTheForce "Children of the Force"]], it's revealed that "Denal" is actually Bane in disguise, having killed the trooper and stolen his armour in order to escape.
** [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS5E16TheLawless "The Lawless"]]: Arriving on Mandalore in response to Duchess Satine's call for help, Obi-Wan lures a Mandalorian Death Watch commando onboard the ''Twilight'' for the purpose of stealing his armour.
** [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS6E3Fugitive "Fugitive"]]: Fives, on the run while trying to uncover the truth about his friend Tup's death, has droid AZI-3 lure another clone trooper into the storage room where he's hiding so he can knock him out and steal his armour.

** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsTheSiegeOfLothal "The Siege of Lothal"]]: Kanan acquires a stormtrooper's armor by walking up to him, telling him he "looks familiar", then knocking him out and dragging him into an alley. Hera, Ezra and Sabine, watching, are astonished.
** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E07StealthStrike "Stealth Strike"]]: Kanan and Rex need stormtrooper disguises to infiltrate an Imperial ship to rescue captured rebels, so Zeb goes out and knocks out two troopers before dragging them back to the ''Ghost''.

** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E08AnInsideMan "An Inside Man"]]: After an infiltration of the Lothal Imperial factories goes awry, Kanan and Ezra, in need of new disguises, fortuitously run into a stormtrooper and scout trooper in the hallways. ''THWACK!''
** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS4E10WolvesAndADoor "Wolves and a Door"]]: Ezra and Sabine mug two scout troopers to infiltrate an Imperial excavation site.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsResistance'': [[Recap/StarWarsResistanceS1E18Descent "Descent"]] presents what is probably the only instance of this trope involving two astromech droids: CB-23, sent to deliver a message to Captain Doza in the tower, lures away a First Order ball droid delivering a tray of food up there and takes it out before swiping the tray. Despite her much more colourful paint job, the disguise works flawlessly.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}''

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'':

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'':

* ''SPYxFamily'': One instance where Loid is at the aquarium with Yor and Anya has him forced to disguise as a new worker in order to get close to a penguin that swallowed a microfilm. The guy is later seen unconscious in a locker.

** The Knight and the Squire show us [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/skandha/ks002027_zpsd55ed6f7.jpg how they do it]] in Merrie Olde England.

'''Artax:''' [[LampshadeHanging For the guards who were dumb enough to let some heroes steal their uniforms.]]\\

* In ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', Little John ambushes the Sheriff of Nottingham and put on his clothes during the jailbreak scene. The Sheriff spends the rest of the climax in his underwear.

* An old joke (almost always passed off as a "true story") has an inversion, with the guy who usually ''gets'' mugged playing the trick. A bus driver is tasked with taking twenty inmates from a local insane asylum to one in another country; at one point, he stops for some reason and [[WhatAnIdiot leaves the keys in the ignition]]. The inmates escape, and the bus driver rushes into the streets, announcing that the next twenty people who get on board the bus will win a free vacation. Some passerby happily climbs aboard... at which point the driver carts them to the asylum and is sure to tell the doctors there that the "patients" suffer from a mass delusion that he tricked them onto the bus. There's no physical interplay involved, but the driver does steal their identities forcefully, so it seems like a variation of the trope.

-->-- ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' (after Wallace's men sneak into and capture an English fort)

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'':

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}}'': Particularly obvious example in "Droopy's Good Deed": Spike wants to become a boy scout to meet the President. He snatches a boy scout in front of everyone, drags him into a bush, and appears a moment later wearing his uniform. And nobody notices a thing. Come on, I expect Droopy to be that placid... but nobody else noticed that he got dragged off and is suddenly twice as big (and smokes a cigar, which he promptly swallows)? at least Spike somewhat resembles the poor little fella, who's [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse never seen again]].

This specific setup is optimized for comedy, and is usually PlayedForLaughs. If it is PlayedForDrama, one or more of the steps may be altered.

Usually involves UndressingTheUnconscious. Sometimes leads to DeliveryGuyInfiltration, JanitorImpersonationInfiltration, NotMyDriver and RoomDisservice. May overlap with RemovingTheRival. Compare DisguisedHostageGambit.

%% ** The novelization of ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' lampshades how impossible this was and what an achievement this was for Max. Doubly so in versions of the universe other than the novel 'verse, which has mental interface controls - in the anime universes, Max is improvising with controls, programs, and likely limb-movement limits that were never intended to allow a mecha to put on clothing!
%% Bad example indentaion.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki steal someone's outfit to enter the Kaiba Corp Grand Championship, in an example that has a surprising amount of similarities to the above example.

** In ''Fairy Tale: - The Twin Dragons of Sabertooth'', the members of the Abyss Horn guild kidnap Yukino and send in an impostor back to Sabretooth in her stolen clothes. Sting immediately recognizes the new "Yukino" as an impostor since the real Yukino is never late.
* ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' episode #1. When Naota goes to the hospital to have the growth on his head looked at, the nurse turns out to be Haruko. During the scene we see a nurse BoundAndGagged in her underwear. Haruko overpowered the nurse and stole her uniform. She wears it again in episode 5 "Brittle Bullet" when she's acting as a barber for Commander Amarao.

* The final story arc of ''Manga/SoulEater'' features Kilik, Kim and Ox using the robes of some defeated Arachnophobia grunts to infiltrate one of the madness relay stations.

** In the very first episode of ''Anime/LupinIIITheItalianAdventure'', Zenigata ''thinks'' Lupin has done this to Mr. Lionello, but is proven wrong when the real Lupin shows up. [[spoiler: It turns out Zenigata was half right. Someone did tie up and gag Mr. Lionello and steal his clothes for the heist, but it was ''Fujiko'', not Lupin]]. This series also provides a {{Deconstruction}} (mixed in with SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome) when Lupin is arrested on Italian soil: he can't be extradited to Japan as Italy doesn't have death penalty and refuses to extradite criminals who risk execution such as Lupin, but under Italian law kidnapping to facilitate a robbery, such as this trope, is ground for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_41-bis_prison_regime hard prison regime]], thus legally justifying the increasingly harsh and desperate means used by Zenigata and the Italian prison guards to keep him in.

** There are a number of cases where this is also implied (the women often poses as guards or employees at the locations they plan to rob), but not shown.

* In the third episode, the title character of ''Anime/{{Madlax}}'' does this to an unfortunate maid while she infiltrates an hotel, leaving her BoundAndGagged in a closet while she dons her uniform.

** In the "Blue Mermaid Heist" story, Kaitou does this to Masumi Sera, leaving her BoundAndGagged in a bathroom stall. This proves [[SpottingTheThread to be crucial to how Conan actually solves the case]], since Kaitou didn't realize that [[{{Bifauxnen}} the teenager he was impersonating was a girl]]. It was accidentally out of character for him because he typically copies a woman's clothing beforehand rather than knocking out and undressing her.

* An InvokedTrope in ''Manga/Golgo13''. Golgo is hired by the CIA to kill a DoubleAgent in a snowy area of Canada. He captures a henchwoman working for the agent, and [[UndressingTheUnconscious leaves her stripped naked]] in a cabin so that she can't escape without [[ExposedToTheElements freezing to death]]. Before leaving, he tasks a local girl with watching the prisoner, and pays her with an expensive red coat. The henchwoman quickly knocks the girl unconscious and [[UndressingTheUnconscious steals her clothing]] in order to escape, and heads off to find her boss. While the two of them are fleeing, the woman realizes too late that Golgo planned all of this, and that the red coat was meant to make her stand out as a target against the white backdrop of the terrain. Before she can warn her boss, Golgo kills both of them with a single shot.

* In the Episode 10 of ''Anime/{{Penguindrum}}'', Natsume disguises herself as a nurse, while the woman she stole the uniform from is briefly shown BoundAndGagged inside a locker.

** In the third volume, the Get Backers are tasked with retrieving a priceless violin that's currently under the possession of a mob boss. They decide to take advantage of the fact that he's hosting a party and invited a quintet of musicians to entertain his guests. They enlist the help of Paul, Natsumi and Hevn to replace the musicians. (They needed to be five, as a quintet is composed of five musicians, and they needed Natsumi and Hevn because two of the musicians were women). They trick the musicians on their way to the mob boss' house by pretending that their car is broken down and, when they pull down to help, they knock them out and steal their clothes, their instruments and their car. The real musicians are left BoundAndGagged in their undies inside the Get Backers' car. The same thing is hinted to also happen in the anime, but the stripped musicians aren't shown.

** ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho016StormWarning Sorm Warning]]'': Before the adventure started, Charlie got junior steward Simon Murchford drunk, left him passed out in the stables, and stole his papers and kitbag to take his place on the R101.

** An issue of the 90's ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'' series had the title character tying up and gagging a maintenance worker so that she could steal the worker's uniform and infiltrate the building where they were employed.

** Kate did the same thing in an earlier issue. She infiltrated the Circus of Crime by replacing the group's female archer ([[ContrivedCoincidence who luckily had the same body measurements]]), with the real archer left beaten, bound and gagged in her dressing room.

* ''Comicbook/TheAdventuresOfTintin'': Late in "Cigars of the Pharaoh", Tintin intercepts a member of the drug-trafficking ring's council and steals their klan-esque uniform. The victim is mentioned "being found unconscious" in a phone conversation that reveals the council is infiltrated, but gets no further mention or appearance, including when Tintin dramatically unmasks all others. As a consequence, that person's identity is never revealed to the reader (though Tintin presumably saw their face when he stole their hood).

* ''[[Fanfic/MCURewrites Avengers: Civil War]]'': [[spoiler:Sharon Carter infiltrates the Raft Prison where Clint Barton, Sam Wilson and Scott Lang are being held in order to break them out. She knocks out a female guard and takes her uniform. While in uniform, she plants a device that will disable the cameras, releases Clint, Sam, and Scott, plants several bombs to blow up the prison and leads them to the getaway helicopter.]]

* In the 2006 animated film ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}'', the Wolf and Kirk try infiltrating Boingo's tramway terminal lair to rescue Red with disguises. They get Kirk's disguise by luring Boingo's muscle man, Dolph, away, where they overpower him, and steal his ski uniform. So that he won't be recognized, Kirk also wears a ski mask. Funnily enough, Boingo must be blind or very irritated if he is unable to notice that "Dolph" [[PaperThinDisguise has magically changed his weight and grown a beard almost in a matter of seconds]].
* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'' when Po is trying to sneak into Shen's fireworks factory. He knocks out two wolf guards, but instead of taking their uniforms (which would clearly be too small for him), he just holds them up in front of his face, using the guards ''themselves'' as the disguise. This actually works, since no-one gets a very good look at him.

* Occurs in the Our Gang short ''Film/BoxingGloves''. Mary Ann pulls Jackie from his ringside seat, steals his clothes and takes his place.

** Subverted when Conan knocks out a member of the Doom Cult to infiltrate Thulsa Doom's lair. It doesn't work however, as Conan gave a stolen amulet to a guard to establish his bona fides. Suspicious, the guard takes it to his boss, and they easily locate Conan among the thousands of cult members simply because he's moving and acting differently from the fervent cultists.

* In ''Film/CradleOfFear'', The Man murders the two traffic cops who arrive to investigate Nick's crash, then takes the uniform from one of them and uses to it to gain access to Fenham Asylum.

* In ''Film/TheDevilsDouble'', when Latif Yahia, Uday Hussein' BodyDouble, passes through a checkpoint during the UsefulNotes/GulfWar, he flashes an ace of spades card, the sentry salutes and allows his motorcade through. The next day on the way back, the Latif repeats the process, with the sentry giving him a confused look. Latif then manages to spot a bloody corpse stripped to his underwear, and the motorcade has to shoot their way out of an attempted hit.

* In ''Film/LaGrandeVadrouille'' (''Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!'' in the USA, ''The Great Stroll'' elsewhere) the heroes (three British aviators and two Parisians on the run from Germans) set a trap on an evening Paris street. Alan [=MacIntosh=] [[AttractiveBentGender dressed as a woman]] strolls next to an open manhole, passers-by look at "her" and fall into the hole, where they are beaten and [[UndressingTheUnconscious undressed]]. Bonus points for the speed of undressing and sorting the clothes and footwear. Minor subversion in the next scene: next morning [[JerkAss Lefort]] realizes that he took too small shoes and forces [[TheWoobie Bouvet]] to give him his.

** In ''[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade The Last Crusade]]'', Indy knocks out a Nazi officer and steals his uniform at the book burning rally. Later, he follows a zeppelin attendant to an off-screen area to get his uniform as Nazi agents approach him and his dad. Amusingly, [[CallBack much like the example]] in ''Raiders'', the zeppelin attendant's uniform is too small for Jones. He manages to squeeze into it, but is visibly uncomfortable.

** ''Film/DiamondsAreForever''. During the opening sequence several doctors leave a building and another doctor enters. We then see a man lying behind some bushes wearing underclothes. After the other doctor gets inside he pulls off his mask and cap to reveal himself as Bond. Bond took out the doctor and stole his medical clothing so he could investigate inside.

* ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'': [=DJ=] boards the casino stage to talk to Dusty Tails by kidnapping one of the Yosemete Sam-background dancers and [[ItMakesSenseInContext wearing his tiny jacket and mask.]]

* ''Film/{{Red}}'': When Frank Moses is caught breaking into CIA headquarters, an alert goes out for a bald man wearing a bloodsplattered white shirt. He starts a fire, then mugs one of the firemen, carrying out his unconscious body and wearing his fire helmet. The body is checked to make sure it's not Frank (the fireman has hair of course) but Fireman Frank is let through the perimeter check. The trope is PlayedForLaughs when the BadassCrew have to infiltrate a political convention at a hotel. A waiter is shown taking out the garbage to an industrial bin when he's suddenly yanked into it by persons unknown, later revealed to be one of the team.

* ''Film/RingOfFear'': After escaping the asylum, O'Malley knock out a railroad worker and steals his clothes. He then dresses the worker in his asylum uniform and pushes him in front of a train to [[FakingTheDead convince the authorities that he has died]].

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmes1932'', Holmes knocks out Hans and takes his welder's outfit-—including full face mask-—and uses iy to infiltrate Moriarty's gang.

* In ''Film/SkyBandits'', Barney and Luke mug a pair of drunk British officers and steal their uniforms so they can gain access to the officers club. Barney later steals a uniform off a German airman an gives it to Luke so he can infiltrate the airship base.

* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' does the same when Lone Starr and Barf infiltrate Spaceball City. Made especially funny when you realize that neither of the mooks are anywhere near John Candy's size. Becomes a BrickJoke when they run into two {{mook}}s dressed in underwear.

** Certain ExpandedUniverse sources claim that stormtrooper armor has a built-in protection from mugging for disguise. If the helmet is removed without pressing a hidden button, its built-in HUD turns off and only gets in the way of vision, and ''that's'' why Luke cannot see a thing in this helmet.

* In ''Film/TheStoryOfRobinHoodAndHisMerrieMen'', the Merrie Men snatch two of the Sheriff's servants, steal their livery and use the disguises to ransack the Sheriff's quarters and deliver his wealth to the ransom table.

* Doubly subverted in ''Film/SuitsOnTheLoose''. When the two juvenile delinquents encounter Mormon missionaries at a restaurant, at first they just steal the missionaries' car. However, they soon realizes the missionary uniforms could make good disguises.

* ''Film/{{Yellowbeard}}''. Mr. Moon knocks out the boatswain's mate leading a press gang, dons his uniform and takes his place.

* An old joke (almost always passed off as a "true story") has an inversion, with the guy who usually ''gets'' mugged playing the trick. A bus driver is tasked with taking twenty inmates from a local insane asylum to one in another country; at one point, he stops for some reason and [[WhatAnIdiot leaves the keys in the ignition]]. The inmates escape, and the bus driver rushes into the streets, announcing that the next twenty people who get on board the bus will win a free vacation. Some passerby happily climb aboard... at which point the driver carts them to the asylum and is sure to tell the doctors there that the "patients" suffer from a mass delusion that he tricked them onto the bus. There's no physical interplay involved, but the driver does steal their identities forcefully, so it seems like a variation of the trope.

** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'': Ron and Harry sneak Crabbe and Goyle a sleeping potion, stuff them in a broom closet, and steal their shoes and several hairs to complete a Polyjuice Potion disguise. The film makes this a straighter example as they also steal Crabbe and Goyle's uniforms, since Slytherin uniforms are different from Gryffindor uniforms in the movies. (The stated reason was because Crabbe and Goyle are freaking tanks. In the book, of course, Hermione planned ahead and nabbed some spare ones.)
** Harry, Ron and Hermione use the same technique to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''.

* ''[[Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge]]''. Jim [=diGriz=] and his [[DarkActionGirl wife Angelina]] mug two police officers for their uniforms in order to escape a dragnet, only to find that they're wearing ladies' underwear. After knocking out two more policeman Angelina suggests taking a peek at their underwear too, but Jim prefers that some illusions should remain untarnished.

** A complicated variation in ''[[Literature/XWingSeries X-Wing: Iron Fist]]''. The Wraiths already have a disguise, but they need to get into the local enemy base, so they have two members start a BarBrawl and get a batch of Imperial pilots caught up in it. Then they show up to arrest everyone involved, knock out or stun the Imperials, disguise themselves as stormtroopers, and are able to get a ride on a speeder that's going out to fetch Imps who'd been out on the town, claiming that the guys they're lugging around lost a fight. It works, and they get in.
** ''[[Literature/StarWarsHonorAmongThieves Honor Among Thieves]]'': On the heavily Imperial world of Cioran, a junior Imperial officer attempts to detain Han and Chewie, but is really no match for them, and swiftly finds himself dazed and naked in an alley. Han uses the man's uniform and gear to throw his weight around on Cioran as he searches for Rebel spy Scarlet Hark. The poor-fitting uniform and Han's nonregulation haircut make the disguise less than perfect.

* Nynaeve, from ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', occasionally mugs people for clothes to sneak herself and her friends into enemy strongholds. The trope is played more realistically than usual, since the clothes fit badly more often than not. Sometimes going so far that the members and their roles in the group are determined by the acquired clothes. Whoever was designated for a specific task beforehand due to their skills might get assigned a different task or even not take part at all because the disguise they'd need doesn't fit.

* ''Series/{{Cannon}}'': In "Dead Pigeon", a pair of hitmen hijack an ambulance and steal the paramedics uniforms to allow them to infiltrate a hospital. The paramedics are later seen unconscious and tied up.
* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' has an example mixed with MuggingTheMonster. Piper and a group of mythical Valkyries end up in the city, and need to blend in. A group of bikers threaten to accost them, and Piper notices that several of the bikers are attractive women. The scene then cuts to the Piper and the Valkyries clad in the women's clothing while the real bikers are all BoundAndGagged in an alley (with the female bikers tied up in their underwear).

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In "Blindsided", Matt goes to the prison to get information on Wilson Fisk's stay there. Fisk has anticipated Matt would show up, and has the guards and inmates in his pocket start a riot in an attempt to kill Matt. While fighting them off, Matt encounters the prison's Albanian mob boss, and convinces him to give up the identity of the man that [[FalseFlagOperation Fisk hired to pay for his own shanking]]. He also convinces the boss to help get Matt out of the prison. To do so, the Albanian boss has one of his men strip the uniform off one of the guards that Matt had earlier disarmed, and said inmate then escorts Matt the rest of the way out, fighting through other guards and inmates.

** "The Frogs and the Lobsters": Master Bowles is a British sailor stranded in France after French Royalist soldiers were slaughtered by Republicans. When the Republicans loot and rob the dead Royalists, Bowles pretends he's dead. He kills the soldier who tries to steal from him, because he needs his uniform to disguise himself. He wants to at least try to get back to his ship.

** In "The Three Gamblers", Maddie finds a [[DeadMansChest dead body in its underwear stuffed in a wardrobe]] and realises that the this is the constable who was supposed to be guarding the house, and that the policeman with her is the killer, having murdered him and stolen his uniform.
** In "The Curse of the Bronze Lamp", the kidnappers (posing as security guards) knock out a pair of [=DJs=] who run a mobile disco, steal their clothes and van, and use it it gain access to their victim's home.

* In season 2 of ''Series/{{Luther}}'', Luther is chasing a spree killer, who steals a [[DeadlyDelivery motorcycle courier's clothes and helmet]], walks into an office building and starts killing people. By the time Luther arrives on the scene he's told the killer has escaped through the carpark. Sure enough Luther finds the gate blocking the carpark has been pried up as if someone crawled under it. But he also sees a nearby car has been broken into, and [[PunkInTheTrunk in the trunk]] finds a man in his underwear. Luther realises the killer is still on the premises, posing as a wounded employee.

** In "The Assassin", Piedra drags a nun into a closet and [[BadHabits steals her habit]] in order to get close his target, the archbishop.

* ''Series/MissionImpossible'' episode "Invasion". A hit man is sent to kill the man the IMF is targeting. When he discovers the masquerade he knocks out one of the fake soldiers with a TapOnTheHead and puts on his uniform for the purpose of DressingAsTheEnemy.

** In "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing", Eddie Murdoch bludgeons and kils a fireman named Rusty with a shovel, blinds Monk with a container of cleaning solvent, and steals a firefighter's coat and helmet, which he uses to get into a working house fire he staged a few blocks away [[FieryCoverup to remove an incriminating pair of house keys that would prove that said fire was not an accident]].[[note]]The episode was a TV adaptation of the novel ''Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse'', written by Lee Goldberg, where Lucas Breen also steals firefighting gear, but he kills a dog with a pickaxe when the dog comes at him.[[/note]]

* ''Series/TheNewAvengers'': In "Sleeper", the main bad guy disposes of of a visiting scientist and steals his clothes to take his place at a demonstration where he plans to steal the secret weapon.

* ''Series/SheSpies'' features a couple of these in the episode "Crossed Out". The first occurs when Shane mugs a prison guard and steals her uniform to escape. Later, during the climax of the episode, Quentin and Cassie are shown eyeing a pair of maintenance workers, and are soon shown dressed in their uniforms. Strangely, Cassie's uniform fits her perfectly, despite the fact that she stole it from a grown man.

** In "Dagger of the Mind", an escapee from a penal colony knocks out a transporter crewman and takes his RedShirt, but it only works briefly as during the ensuing RedAlert he's identified as wearing an Engineering uniform while being in the wrong part of the ship, after everyone else has gone to their battle stations.

* Spoofed in ''Series/TheThinBlueLine''. A pizza delivery boy in shorts and T-shirt tells Grim he wants to make a complaint about police harrassment; then we see Inspector Fowler wearing the delivery boy's uniform, and riding his motorbike.

* ''Series/{{Whiplash}}'': In "The Solid Gold Brigade", Cobb is transporting miner's gold from Fury Creek to Sydney, but en route a bushranger shoots him and leaves him for dead. The bushranger takes Cobb's coach and clothes to impersonate him and get away with the gold.

* ''Dragon Warriors'' RPG. In an example of play an escaping thief knocks out a member of a party of fishermen. She takes his tunic and disguises herself as one of them so she can join them in strolling through the main city gate to safety.

* ''VideoGame/SanityAikensArtifact'': Chapter 3, where Cain knocks out a guest to take his civilian clothing and sneak into the facility as part of the tour group. It's not explained how this bypassed the [[MoralityChip agression inhibitor]] which is supposed to knock out Cain when he injures an innocent (even accidently).

* In ''Webcomic/{{Darken}}'', when the party needs to get into the Citadel of Light, Gort, Komiyan and Casper mug a trio of guards for their uniforms.[[note]]actually interrupting a conversation among that guards about how [[LampshadeHanging no one would be dumb enough to try to sneak into the Citadel]].[[/note]] This pays off later, as it allows Gort to later evade arrest by passing as the guard captain, who looks much like him.

** Played against MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial in Paris when the even more voluptuous Agatha Heterodyne clobbers an entire platoon of mooks and still can't find a pair of pants that will accommodate her HartmanHips, even with the ace pillaging advice of her Jaegermonster Dimo. She's also forced to wear on of her victims' tunics as a minidress.

* In Chapter 7 of ''Webcomic/SemiAutoSemla'', both the heroine and a thief want to infiltrate a night club owned by the local cartel called the Mi Mi Mao Club, the former to rescue someone, the latter to steal the club's money. Both achieve it by knocking out a dancer, stealing her outfit and stashing her BoundAndGagged in her undies inside the trunk of a car. Ironically, the same car. The WhatHappenedToTheMouse trope is later averted as, when things start to go downhill in Chapter 8, the thief's accomplice actually come back to let the girls go out of the trunk.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'' has the main character running away to join the Flying Flinger Lingons. When Mung and Shnitzel goes to bring him back they spot a pair of what appears to be Flinger Lingon performers sitting in the hill. The two attempt to knock them out with a mallet but the rubber suit bounces back and hits our heroes instead. ''Then'' Truffles reveals that the suits were empty and they could have just taken it instead.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool'': Kuzco discovers an loophole that allows him to access the royal funds while sick and fakes an illness to live it up a bit. Yzma senses an assassination opportunity, so she and Kronk intercept the doctor and nurse coming up to confirm Kuzco's state and leave them tied up while taking their place and outfits.

'''Robot Devil:''' She's naked, but unharmed.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheHerculoids'' episode "The Crystalites". Several Crystalite guards are knocked out and their uniforms stolen so Gloop, Gleep and Zandor can infiltrate the enemy compound to rescue Tarra and Dorno.

* On one episode of ''WesternAnimation/MightyMax'', the protagonists mug three robed druids for their clothes. The robes end up fitting perfectly, which is odd because the druids were normal-sized adult men, while the protagonists were a child, a 9 foot tall man-mountain, and a chicken[[note]]Virgil: "[[RunningGag Fowl, actually.]]"[[/note]].

** In "Bart Gets an Elephant", a pair of DJ's call the police station as part of a radio contest. Chief Wiggum and the other cops are all bound and gagged in their underwear, with Snake and some other criminals having stolen their uniforms.

* Like the comics, this is used by the Chameleon in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan''. The audience is initially lead to believe the villain has been defeated, but then Spidey finds a cop bound and gagged in his underwear in the back of a police van. Turns out that one of the "officers" that had walked off in the background was actually Chameleon in disguise.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsResistance'': [[Recap/StarWarsResistanceS1E18Descent "Descent"]] presents what is probably the only instance of this trope involving two astromech droids: CB-23, sent to deliver a message to Captain Doza in the tower, lures away a First Order ball droid delivering a tray of food up there and takes it out before swiping the tray. Despite her much more colourful paintjob, the disguise works flawlessly.

* ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'': In the BadFuture episode, Dudley needs to get access into Snaptrap's lair. He does so by luring one of the robot guards off-screen, destroying it and wearing its shell to get past security.

'''Lord Bottom:''' ''[[[OhCrap eyes widen]]]''\\
'''William Wallace:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Actually, it was more like fifty]].

** In the very first episode of ''WesternAnimation/LupinIIITheItalianAdventure'', Zenigata ''thinks'' Lupin has done this to Mr. Lionello, but is proven wrong when the real Lupin shows up. [[spoiler: It turns out Zenigata was half right. Someone did tie up and gag Mr. Lionello and steal his clothes for the heist, but it was ''Fujiko'', not Lupin]]. This series also provides a {{Deconstruction}} (mixed in with SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome) when Lupin is arrested on Italian soil: he can't be extradited to Japan as Italy doesn't have death penalty and refuses to extradite criminals who risk execution such as Lupin, but under Italian law kidnapping to facilitate a robbery, such as this trope, is ground for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_41-bis_prison_regime hard prison regime]], thus legally justifying the increasingly harsh and desperate means used by Zenigata and the Italian prison guards to keep him in.

[[folder:Print Media]]
* ''Magazine/{{MAD}} Super Special Fall 1980''. In ''The Moronic Woman'' (a ''Series/TheBionicWoman'' parody), Jammy Summons (Jaime Sommers) and Oscular (Oscar Goldman) have infiltrated the enemy palace. In order to get a guard's uniform for Oscar to wear, Jammy walks around knocking out guards until they find one who is Oscular's size. Oscular puts on the uniform and they go to the office of the dictator.
[[/folder]]

-->'''Hay Lin:''' Why not just take out a guard and blend in?
-->'''Dakota:''' Because that's stupid. The point of espionage is to NOT BE NOTICED BY ANYONE. What if that guard had buddies? Or was invited to play poker or something?

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:Web Video]]

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'':

** In the "Blue Mermaid Heist" story, Kaitou does this to Masumi Sera, leaving her BoundAndGagged in a bathroom stall. This proves [[SpottingTheThread to be crucial to how Conan actually solves the case]], since Kaitou didn't realize that [[{{Bifauxnen}} the person he was impersonating was a girl]]. It was accidentally out of character for him because he typically copies a woman's clothing beforehand rather than knocking out and undressing her.

** In the "Blue Mermaid Heist" story, Kaitou does this to Masumi Sera, leaving her BoundAndGagged in a bathroom stall. This proves [[SpottingTheThread to be crucial to how Conan actually solves the case]], since Kaitou didn't realize that [[LadyLooksLikeADude the person he was impersonating was a girl]]. It was accidentally out of character for him because he typically copies a woman's clothing beforehand rather than knock her out and undress her.

** In one episode, Hitomi and Ai use some KnockOutGas on a pair of female wrestlers and steal their costumes and masks. A female cop later finds the real wrestlers BoundAndGagged in their locker room.

* In ''Series /MashinSentaiKiramager SpinOff: Yodonna'', Mizuki steals a uniform from a maid in order to sneak into a [[CosplayCafe Maid Cafe]] that's being used as a front for organized crime.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In "Blindsided", Matt goes to the prison to get information on Wilson Fisk's stay there. Fisk has anticipated Matt would show up, and has the guards and inmates in his pocket start a riot in an attempt to kill Matt. While fighting them off, Matt encounters the prison's Albanian mob boss, and convinces him to give up the identity of the man that [[FalseFlagOperation Fisk hired to pay for his own shanking]]. He also convinces the boss to help get Matt out of the prison. To do so, the Albanian boss has one of his men acquire a uniform off a Fisk-paid guard that Matt had earlier disarmed, and said inmate then escorts Matt the rest of the way out, fighting through other guards and inmates.

** After [[VillainProtagonist Smaug]] vanishes in [[PainfulTransformation horrible pain]] into the forest surrounding Vathvael, Kathryn and Faervel device a plan to get out of the chambers the former's confined in. They summon a maid who's knocked out by Faervel and placed in Kathryn's bed. Dressed as the maid, Kathryn exits the palace with Faervel under the pretense that the {{Seer}} is resting.