History Main / SleepingDummy

* In ''TheRockfordFiles'', Jim Rockford used a variation of this to escape from jail. First he repeatedly told the officer guarding the jail that he would escape and do it easily. [[spoiler:Next he invoked this trope. After the officer realized that it was only a dummy in the bed, he ran off to look for Jim. At that point, Jim got out from under the bed and walked away.]]

* Used in one of the prime-time soaps (''Falconcrest''?) a decade or two ago. A man tried to murder his boss, firing several shots into the lump on the bed. Then the "victim" walked into the room, accompanied by guards, and before the guards dragged the would-be killer away, the boss mocked him by "praising" his shooting: "That cushion's a goner."

* Done by Mozzie in Series/WhiteCollar so that he could sneak out of the safe house to great success.

* ''IrresponsibleCaptainTylor''. While supposedly a prisoner on the Soyokaze, Empress Azalyn leaves a stuffed kid's toy in her bunk so she can sneak off to Captain Tylor's room.

* This has been done for more than one jailbreak. The three convicts who escaped from Alcatraz in 1962 went whole hog and made the papier-mache head. Ted Bundy did this in his second escape, and it worked so well that the guards didn't check until noon, by which time he'd already made it to the Denver airport and flown to Chicago.

* ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'' is possibly the TropeCodifier, if not TropeMaker or UrExample.

* ''TheFamousFive''.

* In one of the ''[[MercedesLackey Doubled Edge]]'' novels, Rhoslyn needs to go Underhill while seeming to stay in the mortal world. She arranges a couple pillows under her blanket ... and then casts an illusion of her sleeping mortal disguise on the pillows.
* In Scott Westerfeld's ''{{Uglies}}'', Tally puts a portable heater under her covers to convince the heat-sensitive room that she's still in bed.
* Late in ''[[AuntDimity Aunt Dimity: Snowbound]]'': Having convinced the caretaker that she and Wendy are ill in bed, Lori arranges one of these with pillows so she can slip out and help the other hikers search the house. Wendy compliments her on the ruse, and Lori is pleased to have out-thought the rocket scientist for once.

* In ''[[GarrettPI Old Tin Sorrows]]'', Garrett leaves a blanket-covered suit of armor in his bed while he sneaks around the Stantnor mansion at night. When he returns, there's an ax buried in its chest.

** In ''TheLivingDaylights'' uses a ''standing'' dummy--Bond Girl Kara enters a phone booth, a streetcar passes by, and as it pulls away, so does a car. Only when the KGB operative following notices that she's been in the booth an awfully long time and gets confused and suspicious do we see what happened--Kara and Bond used the few seconds that the streetcar was blocking the booth from his view to drape her coat and a wig around her cello case and for her to quickly get into his car and duck down, thus allowing her to defect.

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* This has been done for more than one jailbreak. The three convicts who [[EscapeFromAlcatraz escaped from Alcatraz]] in 1962 went whole hog and made the papier-mache head. Ted Bundy did this in his second escape, and it worked so well that the guards didn't check until noon, by which time he'd already made it to the Denver airport and flown to Chicago.

* ''EscapeFromAlcatraz'' is both a major film example and TruthInTelevision. TheGuardsMustBeCrazy!

* Hogarth, in ''TheIronGiant'', escapes an amoral government agent by doing this.

* In silent film ''[[Film/SkyHigh1922 Sky High]]'', this is how Tom Mix sneaks out of the bad guy camp he's infiltrated, so he can alert the authorities.

A character wants to sneak somewhere at night without being caught, so he or she stuffs the bed with rolled up sheets or pillowcases or something to make it look as though he or she is still in bed, maybe with a fake papier-maché head sticking out from the sheets. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

See also BedsheetLadder, NinjaLog.

!!Examples:

* Used in ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'' by the Hobbits.

* Becky does this to sneak out of the house when she is supposed to be down with the flu the SickEpisode of ''Series/{{Roy}}''.

* In the anime of ''Series/{{Golgo 13}}'', Duke Togo does this in bedroom which is under video surveillance at the time, pulling the pillows under the sheet with him, then slipping off the bed on the opposite side of the camera.

* In the anime of ''Series/{{Golgo 13}}'', Duke Togo does this in bedroom which is under video surveillance at the time, pulling the pillows under the sheet, then slipping off the bed on the opposite side of the camera.

* Used in ''Film/SteamboatBillJr?'' by Bill Jr. to escape from his father and meet his girlfriend.