History Main / PercussivePickpocket

* A real-world variation is used by two pickpockets working in tandem. One does the clumsy bump but doesn't steal anything. The genre-savvy victim ''thinks'' this has happened and reflexively puts a hand in/on the pocket holding his wallet. The second pickpocket spots this, tails the victim, and lifts the wallet without the victim even noticing their presence.

** ArcVillain Shane Casey uses this trope to sneak a cell phone ''into'' Mac's pocket in "Raising Shane."

* In ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'', Arthur can run into such a pickpocket while in Saint Denis, and they'll make off with a large sum of his money unless they're chased down and caught.

* In ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'' you can purchase the ability to do this as an upgrade. [[PowerupLetDown You will never make back the money it costs to buy this ability]].
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': Vaan is shown pickpocketing a random {{Mook}} of the EvilEmpire in an early cutscene.

* In ''The Twisted Thing'', Literature/MikeHammer gets TheGlomp from the murderer, who takes the opportunity to [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets remove the magazine from his Colt automatic]].

** Spike lets the bad guy Asimov bump him (actually grab and start to strangle him) in order to steal a vial of the drugs Asimov was carrying.
** And in another case, he slips the current bad guy's ''bioweapon vial'' into her own pocket, resulting in it [[ChekhovsGun breaking open in a later scene]] and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard taking her out]] just as she [[OhCrap realizes what happened]].
** Another variant occurs in the movie when Spike slips a listening device into Electra's pocket while fighting her.

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'': A little boy does this to Lina Inverse. [[GiveMeBackMyWallet She catches him]] and makes him her slave.

[[folder:Film — Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'': Mr. Wolf, a master pickpocket, does this to steal an ID card from the police chief for the Golden Dolphin heist.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}:

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon: Gates to Infinity'', a Scraggy does this to the two protagonists after they've retrieved some blue stones from a nearby dungeon. The duo is very GenreBlind about this; they start looking around for dropped stones after they realize they're gone, and when they see the Scraggy again, they think about asking him if he saw where they might have landed.

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': In "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS19ETreeOfLife Tree of Life]]", Dr. Blight gets SuperpowersForADay from the tree's sap. When she starts getting the upper hand on Captain Planet, Wheeler and Kwame tackle her. She throws them off easily, but when she wants to refuel on the super sap, she finds that Wheeler picked her pocket. One spray of sap later, Captain Planet retakes the upper hand.

* In addition to being TheHeavy, Huell from ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' appears to have this as his specialty, able to plant and steal objects from people fairly easily for a big slow guy.

To make it even easier, the thief tends to look shady or untrustworthy in general. If he is a child, you can expect him to be a [[StreetUrchin Street Urchin]]. If the stolen item was something [[MacGuffin important to the plot]], you can be certain that the protagonist and the thief will meet again later sometime after discovering the loss of his missing item, having deciphered [[StickyFingers what exactly happened]].

* Parodied in an episode of ''Series/AngieTribeca'', when Dr. Scholls gets a ferret out of a cage simply by bumping into the Fish & Game officer holding it. Taken UpToEleven in the slow-motion flashback, which reveals that during the bump she took the cage, swapped the ferret for a box of Pop-Tarts, applied lipstick, gave a passionate kiss to a nearby policeman, returned the cage to the officer, and then apologized for the bump.

* During a flashback in ''ComicBook/{{Criminal}}'', veteran pickpocket Ivan tells a young Leo that "the bump is for amateurs". Leo is later shown being able to lift people's wallets [[spoiler: and weapons]] without them ever noticing.

* In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfClarkKent'' storyline from the ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' franchise, Lois Lane steals a policeman's radio phone using this technique when she was on the run in Metropolis and uses the phone to get in touch with "Terrible" Turpin.