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| 9 | ->''"That's how it always begins. Very small."'' |
| 10 | -->-- '''Egg Shen''', ''Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina'' |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Someone investigates a minor crime, or possibly something as major as murder, but finds something much bigger going on behind it. The first crime might be part of a RevealingCoverup, or it might be just a RedHerring; it can also be both the cause and effect of CrimeAfterCrime. This is extremely common in crime fighting action films where the plot is more about building up a lead in from normal life and confronting the big secret; in other fiction there might be all manner of twists, turns and dead ends before it all links up. This is a staple of the detective variety of FilmNoir. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Some of the more complex {{Evil Plan}}s may stretch from the most trifling crimes to the mind-bogglingly evil in a [[GambitRoulette mind-bogglingly complex manner.]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Sometimes the AntiVillain is [[TheReveal revealed]] to be quite heinous; in other cases, the AntiVillain teams up with the heroes to fight the BigBad. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Works in which several different crimes are committed (e.g., a PoliceProcedural TV series) sometimes follow the pattern that ''every'' Minor Crime reveals a Major Plot -- the main characters can't investigate any crime, big or small, without stumbling upon an EvilPlan involving several different people and six- or seven-digit sums of money. This is largely an [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Acceptable Break From Reality]]: of course, in RealLife, thousands of crimes are committed each day without any sort of plan or conspiracy behind them -- burglars sneak into homes to steal some small cash, people are killed when petty arguments get out of hand, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking dastardly villains cross streets in illegal ways to get to the other side faster]] -- but it makes for a more interesting story to have your master detectives slowly uncover the villainous plot of a DiabolicalMastermind than to have them book [[BitPartBadGuys random mugger after random mugger]]. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Contrast InfractionDistraction, where a minor crime is committed to conceal a greater one. Also contrast NotTheFirstVictim, which refers to the tendency of killers in fiction to be {{Serial Killer}}s, but their stories usually begin with a major crime revealing a series of ''other'' major crimes. Cases can result from EvilIsPetty. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | TruthInTelevision. RealLife professional criminals will bend over backwards to make sure they don't trip up over something minor because it's happened before. The best way to avoid capture is to not attract attention -- at all. However, many criminals do not maintain professional standards and are caught for things like not paying fare on the subway, or expired license plates. It's given rise to the expression "Only break one law at a time". |
| 23 | |
| 24 | As this is a trope about plots, '''many of the examples will contain spoilers'''. You have been warned. When it's the ''criminal'' who only intended to commit a minor crime, it's UnintentionallyNotoriousCrime. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Not to be confused with WantedMeter. Compare WorkingTheSameCase, where two or more seemingly unconnected cases turn out to be connected to the same plot. See also CurrencyConspiracy, where a crime like the theft or counterfeiting of cash can lead to a conspiracy. |
| 27 | ---- |
| 28 | !! Because of the nature of the trope, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies to this page and all related subpages. Proceed with caution. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | !!Examples: |
| 31 | |
| 32 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 35 | [[AC:Examples by creator]] |
| 36 | * Creator/NaokiUrasawa really loves this one. |
| 37 | ** ''Manga/{{Monster}}'': Murder of a patient and incidental framing of his doctor → plans to create an {{Ubermensch}} and take over Germany, and a separate plan to kill as many Germans as possible ForTheEvulz. |
| 38 | ** ''Manga/TwentiethCenturyBoys'': Murder of an old classmate → conspiracy to TakeOverTheWorld with a cult. |
| 39 | ** ''Manga/{{Pluto}}'': Serial murder of the World's Strongest Robots → plot of a military superpower to TakeOverTheWorld and establish robot control over humans. |
| 40 | [[AC:Examples by work:]] |
| 41 | * ''Manga/{{Arachnid}}'': Alice's uncle is assassinated for his debts to a criminal syndicate → both that and the covered-up murder of Alice's mother were part of a plan to make Alice into the ultimate assassin and the right-hand woman to an ageless ShadowDictator with parasitic powers who wants to [[DepopulationBomb curb Japan's population]]. |
| 42 | * ''Manga/CaseClosed'' has the Black Organization. It looked like a simple case of blackmail, but they're actually an elite group of murderers that owns huge biological research facilities. |
| 43 | * ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'': Lupin discovers the casino he robbed only has counterfeit money → Lupin uncovers an AncientConspiracy as well as a plot by the BigBad to claim a large amount of wealth. |
| 44 | * ''Literature/DirtyPair: Affair on Nolandia'': Mysterious crash involving a runway made to appear out of whack and subsequent murder of the latest client of the Lovely Angels → a SocialDarwinist's attempt to remake the universe in his own image. |
| 45 | * ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' has at least two points that could be considered either the crime with the warrant that turns out too small or the far more sinister plot. They both go from the Elric brothers' attempt at human transmutation to the murder of Maes Hughes all the way up to outing and defeating an AncientConspiracy which may as well be called Amestris' very own [[TheIlluminati Illuminati]]. |
| 46 | * ''Manga/FuutoPI'' begins with a man asking the heroes for help in retrieving his stolen bag, which ends up revealing the existence of a parallel dimension where a new group of Gaia Memory users live and fight against the Kamen Riders. |
| 47 | * {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex''; the murder of a policeman who discovered illegal surveillance devices appears to bring the elite hacker Laughing Man out into the open, but it turns out the guy was an imitator. However, later it's played straight: hacker in government-run halfway house → conspiracy involving Japan's entire military-industrial complex. |
| 48 | * ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': |
| 49 | ** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'': The hit-and-run incident that got Jolyne sent to prison was masterminded by Enrico Pucci to have Jotaro LuredIntoATrap by stealing his memories containing the full extent of DIO's EvilPlan that Pucci seeks to fulfill. |
| 50 | ** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureJoJolion JoJolion]]'': Josuke's first encounter with a Rock Human has him discovering the existence of the Locacaca Fruit that is tied to his MysteriousPast and that an organization is seeking to take the fruit for their own purposes. |
| 51 | ** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureTheJoJoLands The JoJoLands]]'': The team's sneaking into Rohan's villa to steal a blue diamond instead has them discovering much more valuable WorthlessYellowRocks, then learn that others were intent on obtaining the rocks as well. |
| 52 | * ''Anime/KillLaKill'': Investigating your father's murder → fighting a fascist allegory AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil while mostly naked → becoming the central figure in a war against aliens that engineered the evolution of the human race for a food source. The murderer was working for a human that aligned themselves with the aliens, and the father was the founder of an organization fighting them. |
| 53 | * This is the plot of ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'' from {{Deuteragonist}} Sherlock's point of view. He stumbles across an odd death that is clearly a disguised murder, then finds himself framed for murder, and uncovering that only reveals that his suspicions that there is a mastermind behind the crimes is accurate. |
| 54 | [[/folder]] |
| 55 | |
| 56 | [[folder:Audio Plays]] |
| 57 | * ''AudioPlay/StrikersSoundStageX'' of ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'': Murder of various Old Belka researchers → Terrorist plot to attack Mid-childa with the [[NightOfTheLivingMooks undead army]] of a [[ShroudedInMyth legendary Dark King]]. |
| 58 | [[/folder]] |
| 59 | |
| 60 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 61 | * ''ComicBook/BatmanBlackAndWhite'': "Blackout", set in World War II, starts with Batman investigating a window that's showing a light in defiance of the blackout order, which leads to him discovering a jewel robbery in progress, which leads to him learning that the owner of the jewels was using them to fund a Nazi spy ring. |
| 62 | * ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'': Steve investigates his ex Bernie's sister going missing → a plot by Mother Night to indoctrinate teenagers ''en masse''. And when it's over, Steve finds out Bernie's sister's disappearance was completely unrelated to this. |
| 63 | * ''ComicBook/GordonOfGotham:'' |
| 64 | ** A vice squad raid discovers several mobsters [[CementShoes pouring cement onto the corpse of a dead associate]]. In exchange for leniency, one of the prisoners then offers to blow the lid on a 6-million-dollar robbery that left ten innocent people dead. |
| 65 | ** Gordon tickets Officer Davidson for causing a traffic collision while driving a police truck, then gets suspicious when Davidson's report lies about where the accident took place. Davidson was delivering rigged voting machines away from his beat, and is willing to make a stab at murder to keep Gordon from figuring this out. |
| 66 | * ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'': {{Inverted|Trope}} in one story where John reveals to a journalist that UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily are in fact [[ReptilianConspiracy snake people from space]] who had Diana killed because she was trying to resist the BodyHorror required for her to give birth to their spawn, that [[WhoShotJFK Kennedy was killed by]] TheGreys (a ServantRace to the aforementioned reptilians) because he saw his wife quite enjoying sex with a reptilian, and that [[HollowWorld the Earth is hollow]], filled with tunnels that allow easy transportation beteen the continents. John then fakes his death, [[HeKnowsTooMuch ostensibly by governmental spooks]]. It's all lies, of course: the journalist was getting uncomfortably close to a perfectly mundane drug-supplying ring in Buckingham Palace and John was hired to scare him off. |
| 67 | * ''ComicBook/SensationComics'': ComicBook/WonderWoman and Steve Trevor meet a poor boy and are concerned about his home life due to some things he says, when Diana looks into it she discovers that not only is the uncle he and his sister and mother live with so incredibly abusive their mother is terrified that he's going to kill the kids, he's also running a huge racketeering ring from his basement and plotting the armed robbery of a bunch of gold. |
| 68 | * ''ComicBook/SinCity'': Murder of a hooker and frameup of the guy who was with her → uncovering a cannibal farm boy and a corrupt priest who has pretty much the entire city in his pocket. |
| 69 | * Played with in ''Status 7: Overload'', we have a botched ATM hacking leading to a Cyberwarfare attack with a terrorist attack on a MegaCorp for good measure but the whole thing was a cover for embezzlement that gets dealt with during the epilogue. |
| 70 | * ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'': the album "Het Aruba dossier" ("The Aruba File"). The minor crime: two men ignore a red traffic light and crash into Professor Barabas' car, sending all three of them to the hospital. The major plot: once in the hospital, Barabas is accidentally given a briefcase that belongs to the other two men. In the briefcase, he finds a file that describes plans of a big criminal organisation to distribute a highly toxic substance as a new fertilizer for crops. |
| 71 | * Many ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' stories tend to be built around this premise. |
| 72 | ** ''[[Recap/TintinCigarsOfThePharaoh Cigars of the Pharaoh]]'' and its sequel ''[[Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus The Blue Lotus]]'': Disappearance of an Egyptian archaeologist → Uncovering a secret brotherhood of international opium smugglers. |
| 73 | ** ''[[Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre King Ottokar's Sceptre]]'': Kidnapping of an expert on Syldavian history → coup d'état. |
| 74 | ** ''[[Recap/TintinTheCrabWithTheGoldenClaws The Crab with the Golden Claws]]'': A dead sailor found with counterfeit coins → another opium smuggling ring |
| 75 | * ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Investigating the murder of an ex-superhero → uncovering a plot to prevent nuclear war by destroying a city. |
| 76 | * ''ComicBook/XMenNoir'': Open-and-shut gangland murder → a secret brotherhood of {{Dirty Cop}}s. |
| 77 | ** In the sequel, ''X-Men Noir: Mark of Cain'': Murder of Cain Marko → a secret government agency training criminals to be the ultimate spies and assassins. |
| 78 | [[/folder]] |
| 79 | |
| 80 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 81 | * ''Fanfic/AdventuresOfAScrewedUpClone'': A minor mission Danny has with the League has him discover that there's a secret operation involving shades going on, which he could only discover because his powers allowed him to see through the invisibility. |
| 82 | * ''Fanfic/BoldoresAndBoomsticks'': Team WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} is sent off on a mission to find out why the Grimm in the area have been ignoring their normal targets. They end up falling through a portal to the world of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', which Salem had been trying to prevent contact with. |
| 83 | * In ''Fanfic/EyeOfTheStormKisekiMa'', Shirou looks for Sakura that went missing. With the girl being both a lesser grail and in presence of a Servant, it is obvious that it will lead him to current Holy Grail War. |
| 84 | * ''Fanfic/FoxfireRaharMoonfire'': Investigating some ghost sightings morphs into having to stop a powerful spirit from hurting innocents in her quest for vengeance by tracking down her adulterous, child-murdering ex-lover. |
| 85 | * In ''Fanfic/GodSaveTheEsteem'''s version of "Murder, She Snored", someone attacks [[DumbJock Kevin]] shortly after he's accused of cheating on the test, hospitalizing him with minor injuries; [[TheSnarkKnight Daria]] and [[OCStandIn Cindy]] have to investigate why. In the process, they discover that Kevin got his test answers from a massive operation spanning multiple schools, which they get shut down. (Amusingly, Kevin's attack had nothing to do with this--he was cheating with some other guy's girlfriend and just got jumped as revenge.) |
| 86 | * More like Major Crime Reveals Major Crime, but in ''Fanfic/WhoSilencedEllyPatterson'', investigating Elly Patterson's death ended up opening a cold case on a woman's disappearance when Gavin Caine came under suspicion of Elly's death and a house search found the woman's body. To make things worse, the woman was his first wife. |
| 87 | * Played with in ''Fanfic/TheKarmaOfLies'': After Hawkmoth is unmasked and arrested, Lila tearfully confesses to her mother that she'd secretly taken a modeling job with Agreste Fashion, a significantly ''lesser'' crime. She then invokes this while giving her statement to the police, painting herself as an UnwittingPawn whom Gabriel ''and'' Adrien tricked into providing information about her classmates so that Hawkmoth could exploit their emotional states by akumatizing them. She plays the role to the hilt, tearfully defending Adrien upon 'realizing' their rising suspicions, asserting he couldn't ''possibly'' be involved in a way that ensures [[CassandraTruth they don't believe her]]. |
| 88 | * ''Fanfic/ConversationsWithACryptid'': Izuku has a talent for uncovering these: |
| 89 | ** ''Conversations with a Cryptid'': Izuku attempts to uncover All for One's [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld long, long]] criminal history → Discovery of a two-centuries-long and ongoing conspiracy. |
| 90 | ** ''Kidnapping of a Cryptid'': Izuku, Mineta and Mei investigate why it's illegal for pro-heroes to use their own Support items for private use as prosthetics. Which reveals the government's massive human rights violations and corruption and how the anti-quirk laws are actually extremely unconstitutional. |
| 91 | * ''Fanfic/{{Juxtapose}}'': Investigating Izuku's old middle and elementary schools for their neglect in letting Katsuki bully other students reveals a potentially nation-spanning conspiracy by the Meta Liberation Army to indoctrinate people with strong Quirks. |
| 92 | * ''Fanfic/NotThatKindaFired'': |
| 93 | ** When Izuku is sent to supervise Rei's annual mental health assessment, he realizes that Rei should have been released already and notices the doctors act fishy. He finds [[spoiler:a project to ''recreate the Nomus'']], and promptly reports it to Burnin'. |
| 94 | ** Downplayed with the triplets from Accounting. Harassing Izuku at work by forcing them to do their work for them is bad enough, but it's later revealed that as accountants, [[spoiler:foisting their work onto someone else automatically makes them guilty of account-tampering in a Pro-Hero agency. This gets them fired by Endeavor and arrested]]. |
| 95 | * In ''Fanfic/PerfectionIsOverrated'' Hitomi using MindControl to force people to make withdrawals from their bank accounts (which later escalates to murder) → plot by [[ParodySue SUEs]] to kill all the Himes and reshape the world. |
| 96 | * ''Fanfic/StarlightOverDetrot'' starts with the investigation of a murder outside a swanky hotel, and quickly turns into a race to stop a plot that could destroy the whole city. |
| 97 | * ''Fanfic/ADropOfPoison'': |
| 98 | ** Iruka realizes that Naruto is being purposefully failed and shows the Hokage who has a dozen men look over the last ten years of exams. They find that at least a couple dozen students have been deliberately failed and all of them (barring Naruto and those who failed the previous year) are listed as Missing, Dead, or Presumed Dead. |
| 99 | ** Naruto ends up discovering a plot of his own. He starts by investigating arson cases and other setbacks perpetrated by mysterious figures against Konoha businesses, including his own holdings. They turn out to be part of a conspiracy by the Merchant Council to create a monopoly of businesses held by a single bloc of voters. It's implied that Danzo's ROOT organization is connected to both of these plots, which would make this an instance of WorkingTheSameCase. |
| 100 | * ''Fanfic/{{Eroninja}}'': Naruto saves Kurenai from some NaughtyTentacles; this ends up uncovering Furofuki's plot to become the another Kaguya-like figure. |
| 101 | * ''Fanfic/FirstTrySeries'': In ''Team Tetsuo'', Naruto [[InternalReveal tells Sasuke]] about Mizuki being a traitor, leading Sasuke to suspect his education was sabotaged. Tetsuo tests them on their history, revealing that their textbooks are missing massive swatches of information, spurring an investigation that leads to a massive overhaul of their educational system, with everyone who'd graduated over the last six years being retested. |
| 102 | * In ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin'', Naruto's first C-Rank mission has him and his teammates sent to protect a village from bandits. They end up discovering Orochimaru's takeover of the Land of Rice fields much earlier than in canon. |
| 103 | * DoubleSubverted in ''Fanfic/ATeachersGlory'': The invasion causes the reveal of some corruption in the Konoha hierarchy afterwards, but considering how much a CurbStompBattle the invasion was, the corruption is actually more important and devastating after all. |
| 104 | * In later chapters of ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8935062/1/Shards-To-A-Whole Shards to a Whole]]'', small discrepancies in the totals of military pay accounts → embezzlement and corruption within CGI (Coast Guard Investigations) → a decades-old conspiracy to rig US Presidential and Congressional elections. |
| 105 | |
| 106 | * In the ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' fanfic [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13988270/1/Rei-Ryghts-Ace-Attorney-Turnabout-Of-The-Night Rei Ryghts: Ace Attorney Turnabout Of The Night]], the murder of the CFO of a sunscreen manufacturer eventually leads to a conspiracy by a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]] to bring about TheNightThatNeverEnds. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | * ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'': |
| 109 | ** In Chapter 22 the main story, the strange behavior of Poison-type Pokémon in the Crimson City area is revealed to be part of a plan to attack the Gringy City power plant. |
| 110 | ** A side story has Gym Leader Clay helping the local police with a ship whose paperwork is out of line. This leads to League authorities encountering Shadow Pokémon for the first time. |
| 111 | * ''Fanfic/TheDesertStorm'': The sequel's ''Haunting'' arc starts out with Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos being assigned by the Jedi Council to investigate reports of an illegal drug ring in Coruscant's undercity. His investigation sees him uncover a string of assassinations being carried out by a Dark Side cult and eventually leads to the discovery that one of the Jedi Order's reclaimed Padawans is a [[TheMole mole]] for the Sith. |
| 112 | * ''Fanfic/{{Implacable}}'': Taylor is press-ganged by the Wards to avoid juvie when she lashes out at Sophia during her [[TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening trigger event]]. Director Piggot tries to bury the investigation once it's clear the end result would see Sophia in juvie and Taylor free from the Wards. This eventually leads to the Youth Guard discovering the Wards ENE are so badly mismanaged that their charter is revoked and Piggot ends up under investigation. This apparently triggered more investigations countrywide as it's mentioned other Wards departments are being shuttered due to their own scandals. |
| 113 | * ''Fanfic/{{Aemaeth}}'': When Masumi is being plagued by nightmares involving Duel Monsters she's never seen or heard of before, she decides to look their names up in her school database. That's when she finds out they've been erased, implying that not only are they real, but that her dream might not have been a dream after all. |
| 114 | * In ''Fanfic/WithPearlAndRubyGlowing'', [[WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph King Candy]] initially gets arrested for tax fraud, but when the police search his house, they discover videotapes of him sexually abusing his kids, the Sugar Rush racers (except Vanellope). |
| 115 | [[/folder]] |
| 116 | |
| 117 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 118 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Antz}}'': Accidental abduction of Princess Bala --> Attempt to destroy the colony by its deranged general. |
| 119 | * ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'': Theft of Hiro's microbots and death of his older brother Tadashi → plot by Hiro's former mentor Professor Callaghan to destroy Alistair Krei for causing his daughter's death by using the stolen microbots and Krei's teleportation portal. |
| 120 | * In the ''Anime/ExDriver'' film, Soichi Sugano and his friends happen to discover that Angela Gambino caused two AI cars to go out of control in Los Angeles and at the racetrack, only for them to realize that it was part of Angela's plot to stop her father Rico from betting on the race. |
| 121 | * ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplexSolidStateSociety'' begins with a crime that is no means minor, but over the course of the story, explodes into an absolutely massive MilkmanConspiracy that actually tramples two other conspiracies ''going on at the same time'': Suicides of several members of a deposed Korean military junta → a gigantic socio-economic engineering project led by Japan's invalid and elderly, via abducting at-risk children and manipulating legal records. |
| 122 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'': The kidnapping of a toymaker → a plot to rule England's mouse population. |
| 123 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'': Mysterious disappearance of a lawyer known for [[CrusadingLawyer fighting for the rights of supers]] → a scheming ArmsDealer's murderous plan to make himself a figure of public adulation. |
| 124 | * ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1'': The eponymous power company's scare floor being used after hours by Randall, resulting in Boo breaking loose and wreaking havoc in Monstropolis → a dangerous machine designed to extract screams from children as part of a scheme by Randall and Mr. Waternoose. |
| 125 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': A series of seemingly unrelated missing mammals → the Mayor's imprisonment and cover-up of predator species who have inexplicably "[[HatePlague gone savage]]" → the Assistant Mayor's plot to create and exploit [[FantasticRacism anti-predator]] sentiment for political gain. |
| 126 | [[/folder]] |
| 127 | |
| 128 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 129 | * ''Film/AboveTheLaw1988'': Regular drug raid against the Chicago Mafia reveals the Mafia is smuggling C-4 plastic explosives into the city -> bomb made utilizing said C-4 goes off in a Catholic church mid-Mass, killing the officing priest and wounding many people -> CIA plan to kill a witness to the many drug-related atrocities they do in Central America to fund their operations. |
| 130 | * ''Film/AceVentura'': |
| 131 | ** ''Pet Detective'': Dolphin kidnapping → murder of the head of operations for the Miami Dolphins, and the kidnapping, and attempted murder of NFL star Dan Marino by a vengeful ex-kicker who blamed him for the failed field goal that cost the Dolphins the Super Bowl. |
| 132 | ** ''When Nature Calls'': Bat kidnapping → plot to wipe out two indigenous African tribes and seize their land. |
| 133 | * ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossThe8thDimension'': Theft of the Oscillation Overthruster and kidnapping Penny Priddy → the Red Lectroids' plot to return to Planet 10 and conquer it, leading to a threat by the Black Lectroids to start WorldWarIII. |
| 134 | * ''Film/AlienNation'': Murder of a cop during a robbery → re-introducing a devastating alien drug. |
| 135 | * ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen'' is about Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's ''Washington Post'' investigation into the Watergate scandal, a scandal which is itself a real-life example of this trope. |
| 136 | * ''Film/{{Amsterdam|2022}}'': The murder of a Senator and his daughter → the uncovering of a secret conspiracy to overthrow the American government and replace it with a fascist state. |
| 137 | * ''Film/TheAvengers1998'': Sabotage of a weather control project → holding Britain to ransom with the threat of a weather attack that will destroy London. |
| 138 | * ''Film/{{Basic}}'': A training exercise gone wrong with an elite Army unit (with one person confirmed dead and others missing) → a case of multiple murders, a major drug dealing/drug smuggling scandal on the base involving highly placed personnel, and even rumors of [[FromCamouflageToCriminal a group of former special forces soldiers that have started their own]] [[TheCartel drug cartel]] and are settling scores from their old Army days. |
| 139 | * ''Film/TheBatman2022'': Murder of the incumbent mayor by a SerialKiller → The reveal of massive systemic corruption in Gotham's government enabled by stealing funds from the Wayne family → SerialKiller and his vengeful WesternTerrorists plotting to flood Gotham and kill the survivors. |
| 140 | * ''Film/TheBeekeeper'': An elderly woman is conned out of her life savings in a phishing scam → a conspiracy to illegally manipulate a presidential election. |
| 141 | * ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop'': Murder of a man in Detroit → international drug smuggling operation in Los Angeles. |
| 142 | ** ''Film/BeverlyHillsCopII'': A series of crimes base on the alphabet leads to a major gun-running operation. |
| 143 | ** ''Film/BeverlyHillsCopIII'': A raid on a Detroit chop-shop gone awry ([[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome which gets]] Inspector Todd [[CopKiller killed by]] the BigBad) leads to Axel Foley discovering a major counterfeit operation hidden inside of an {{Expy}} of Ride/{{Disneyland}}. |
| 144 | * ''Film/TheBigLebowski'': A pair of thugs break into The Dude's house and pee on his rug → kidnapping, embezzlement and a web of connections between a young runaway, a gang of toe-cutting nihilists, a pornographer and the chief of police of Malibu. |
| 145 | * ''Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina'': The kidnapping of a girl with green eyes → David Lo Pan's plan to rule the universe from beyond the grave. |
| 146 | * ''Film/BlackDynamite'': Murder of the protagonist's brother → [[PlayedForLaughs government conspiracy to shrink black men's penises.]] |
| 147 | * ''Film/BlueThunder'': Murder of an LA city councilwoman → a U.S. government conspiracy to eliminate political undesirables with the title combat helicopter. |
| 148 | * ''Film/CastADeadlySpell'': Theft of a book and killing of the thief → conspiracy to call Cthulhu to Earth. |
| 149 | * ''Film/{{Cellular}}'' starts off as trying to trace a woman who was kidnapped by unknown men but soon found out some of the cops in involved in a greater plot |
| 150 | * ''Film/{{Changeling}}''. The kidnapping of Walter Collins → the [[BadCopIncompetentCop vast corruption in the LAPD]]. |
| 151 | * ''Film/{{Chinatown}}'': Who killed Hollis Mulwray? → rape, incest, and massive corruption of the LAPD. |
| 152 | * ''Film/{{Constantine}}'': Suicide of a woman → a plot to bring the Devil's son to Earth and bring about Armageddon. |
| 153 | * ''Franchise/DieHard'' |
| 154 | ** ''Film/DieHard2'': [=McClane=] sees a man with a gun at an airport --> Hijackers plan to crash every plane until a political prisoner is released. |
| 155 | ** ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'': Series of bombings --> Robbery of the Federal Reserve . |
| 156 | * ''Film/DocSavageTheManOfBronze''. Death (murder) of Doc's father → a plot to steal Indian land in Central America that contains a giant pool of gold. |
| 157 | * ''Film/{{Dreamscape}}'': Murder of a woman while dreaming → creating a psychic assassin to kill the President of the United States in his dreams. |
| 158 | * ''Film/{{Dredd}}'': [[FlayingAlive Flaying]] and murder by very high fall of three men → elaborate plan to put slum tower on lockdown to kill the responding Judges and keep the massive drug market from being revealed, combined with four corrupt Judges helping the drug clan with this. Not that ComicBook/JudgeDredd sees this [[ButForMeItWasTuesday as being particularly eventful]]. |
| 159 | * ''Drop Zone'': Skyjacking and kidnapping → scheme to break into DEA headquarters, steal the names of all DEA undercover agents and sell them to the drug cartels. |
| 160 | * ''Film/DudeWheresMyCar'': Two hungover, LazyBum stoners [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin look for their missing car]] → Two extraterrestrial factions vying over a powerful device capable of universal destruction. |
| 161 | * ''Film/FairGame1995'': Drive-by shooting attempt on a divorce lawyer (which then escalates to trying to ''blow her up'' in her apartment) → SternChase of said attorney all over Florida by bunch of renegade Russian spies plotting to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from shadow accounts for their own profit and using the boat that was being disputed over in said divorce as base of operations. |
| 162 | * ''Film/FromHell'': The UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper prostitute murders → one of the victims is the common-law wife of the British crown prince, and the royal family is covering it up. |
| 163 | * ''Film/TheFugitive''. Murder of Dr. Richard Kimble's wife → drug company conspiracy to market a deadly medical drug to an unknowing public. |
| 164 | * ''Film/GetOut2017'': Missing African-Americans turn up in an upstate New York community exhibiting bizarre behavior → Conspiracy among the local elderly whites and a neurosurgeon to transplant their brains into "superior" black bodies as a form of immortality. |
| 165 | * ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' |
| 166 | ** ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'': Sudden surge of paranormal activity in New York City → DemonicPossession of two people by {{hellhound}} demigods → The arrival of a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] JerkassGod summoned decades ago to destroy Earth and, possibly, the universe. |
| 167 | ** ''Film/GhostbustersII'': Resurgence of paranormal activity in NYC emanating from a pink slime → the resurrection of a centuries-dead EvilOverlord to {{reincarnat|ion}}e himself in the body of an infant to one day restart his tyrannical reign and conquer the world. |
| 168 | ** ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife'': Death of Egon Spengler → first ghosts sightings in two decades → reemergence of Gozer, who is once again trying to bring about the Apocalypse. |
| 169 | * ''Film/TheGoldenChild'': Kidnapping of a child → attempt to bring Hell to Earth. |
| 170 | * ''Film/GoneBabyGone'': Who kidnapped the little girl? Not who you'd think. |
| 171 | * ''Film/HighSchoolHigh'': High school proficiency tests being tampered with --> Organized crime |
| 172 | * ''Film/HotFuzz'': Series of murders made to look like accidents → part of a decades-old conspiracy that mercilessly executes anyone who would jeopardize the reputation that Sandford, Gloucestershire has for serenity and cleanliness. "Have you ever wondered why the murder rate in this town is so low, and yet the accident rate is so high?" |
| 173 | * ''Film/HudsonHawk'': Theft of several items → using a gold-making machine to destroy the world's economy. |
| 174 | * ''Film/IRobot'': Suicide (performed with an apparently malfunctioning robot, meaning U.S. Robotics wishes to sweep the event under the rug as "industrial accident") → ZerothLawRebellion |
| 175 | * ''Film/InLikeFlint'': The President's golf swing taking 3 minutes → A diabolical plan to take control of the minds of women all over the world and put a nuclear SwordOfDamocles in orbit around the Earth. |
| 176 | * In ''Film/InTheLineOfFire'', the identity of would-be presidential assassin "Boothe" is exposed when they trail him to an incident where he crippled someone he accused of stealing one of his model car designs. |
| 177 | * ''Film/It2017'' A series of missing children in a small town → A horrifying demonic creature that lives in the sewers of the town that wakes up every 27 years to feed on any child who crosses its path. |
| 178 | * A common trope in the ''Film/JamesBond'' series: |
| 179 | ** ''Film/DrNo''. Murder of a British agent → Dr. No's SPECTRE operation to destroy American missiles. |
| 180 | ** ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove''. Rosa Klebb coerces Tatiana Romanova to defect to [=MI6=] → Elaborate scheme hatched by SPECTRE to steal Lektor decoding machine from the Russians and selling it back to them while exacting revenge on Bond for killing their agent Dr. No. |
| 181 | ** ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}''. Cheating at Gin Rummy, murder of Jill Masterson and gold smuggling → A plot to nuke Fort Knox. |
| 182 | ** ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''. Attempted murder of Bond → A plot to hold the world ransom with two stolen nuclear warheads. |
| 183 | ** ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice''. American and Russian spacecraft are stolen → Elaborate plan by SPECTRE to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. |
| 184 | ** ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService''. Ernst Stavro Blofeld claims title of 'Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp' → Plan by SPECTRE to abduct women from around the world and use them as pawns to spread a dangerous virus that is capable of destroying crops and livestock unless he gets a pardon for his past crimes. |
| 185 | ** ''Film/DiamondsAreForever''. Diamond smuggling → Plot to hold the world for ransom with a [[EnergyWeapon laser-armed]] KillSat. |
| 186 | ** ''Film/LiveAndLetDie''. Deaths of three British agents → Massive heroin smuggling operation. |
| 187 | ** ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''. [[MarkedToDie 007 receives gold-plated bullet]] → Theft of device used for controlling solar energy. |
| 188 | ** ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe''. Disappearing nuclear submarines → A plot to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. |
| 189 | ** ''Film/{{Moonraker}}''. Disappearance of a space shuttle → A plot to kill all humans on Earth. |
| 190 | ** ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly''. British spy ship containing Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC), which controls nuclear subs gets sunk → A plot to steal ATAC for the Soviets. |
| 191 | ** ''Film/{{Octopussy}}''. Smuggling stolen Faberge Eggs and murdering a British agent → Nuclear sabotage, wiping out an American military base along with nearby cities and WorldWarIII. |
| 192 | ** ''Film/AViewToAKill''. A scheme by Max Zorin of systematic doping in thoroughbred horse racing → A scheme by Max Zorin aimed at destroying Silicon Valley (though these two plot points don't directly connect) |
| 193 | ** ''Film/TheLivingDaylights''. Faked sniping attack on a fleeing general → Attacks on British agents and an illegal weapons smuggling network in the middle of the war between U.S.S.R. and Afghanistan. The movie, however, also counts as an inversion. The villains are pitting British and Russian spies against each other by trying to convince the former that the latter are targeting them all for elimination - hoping that they will respond by eliminating the KGB director supposedly responsible for the operation. This is being done to protect their scheme of misusing KGB resources to turn a huge profit smuggling drugs and weapons, which the director is on the verge of exposing. It's a serious crime, but nowhere near as potentially destructive as inciting a war of assassins between the KGB and its Western counterparts (which as Koskov said, in the worst case scenario, could conceivably even lead to nuclear war). |
| 194 | ** ''Film/LicenceToKill''. Felix Leiter gets injured while his wife gets killed → A plot to smuggle cocaine dissolved in petrol into Asia and sell it disguised as fuel to drug lords. |
| 195 | ** ''Film/GoldenEye''. Theft of a prototype helicopter → A revenge scheme by a traitorous [=MI6=] agent aimed at crippling London with an EMP-based KillSat to cover up a massive electronic bank robbery. |
| 196 | ** ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies''. An unusually fast newspaper article on a ship sinking → A scheme aimed at starting a war to gain exclusive media rights in China. |
| 197 | ** ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough''. Murder of a prominent businessman → A plot to force a nuclear sub into meltdown, nuke Istanbul, and contaminate 90% of the world's oil supply. |
| 198 | ** ''Film/DieAnotherDay''. Rogue North Korean colonel trades in smuggled diamonds for weapons and is presumably killed for it → Plot by said rogue colonel, who is revealed to have been FakingTheDead all along, to use a solar-powered KillSat to cut a path through the Korean DMZ, allowing North Korea to launch an invasion of South Korea. |
| 199 | ** Creator/DanielCraig's Bond gets one that spans ''[[Film/CasinoRoyale2006 two]] [[Film/QuantumOfSolace movies]]'': elimination of a bomber-for-hire → the shut down of a banker to terrorist cells around the world → TheReveal of an NGOSuperpower. |
| 200 | ** ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'': Attempt to recover an [[MacGuffin encrypted hard drive]] containing the identities of every active undercover NATO agent goes wrong → [=MI6=] comes under [[HauledBeforeASenateSubCommittee intense government scrutiny]] for the mishap → An attempt a by rogue agent turned cyber-criminal to destroy [=MI6=] and get his revenge against M for selling him out to the Chinese. |
| 201 | ** ''Film/{{Spectre}}'': Unauthorized mission by 007 to foil terrorist plot in Mexico City → A campaign to shut down the 00-agent section and replace it with an intelligence-sharing program called "Nine Eyes" → TheReveal that said NGOSuperpower whom Bond fought against in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'' and ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' was also behind events of ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'', hopes to use the "Nine Eyes" program to stop any investigation into their operations, and its leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld is revealed to be Bond's estranged step-brother, [[GreaterScopeVillain who masterminded the tragedies 007 faced]] since ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''. |
| 202 | ** ''Film/NoTimeToDie'': Russian Scientist gets kidnapped → Stopping an assassin's attempt to destroy the world by wiping out half of the world's population with [[{{nanomachines}} Nanobots]]. |
| 203 | * ''Film/JudgeDredd'': Murder of an investigative reporter → assassination of the Judges' Council and a coup d'etat. |
| 204 | * ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'': Reported kidnapping of a college professor (who, strangely, was seen walking freely in public ''after'' the report) → Plot to kill off most of the human population via a cellphone-distributed HatePlague. |
| 205 | * ''Film/KissKissBangBang'': Surveillance of an affair → Hollywood mogul killing his daughter as part of an InheritanceMurder |
| 206 | * ''Film/LAConfidential'': Theft of a suitcase of cocaine → a massive corruption ring in the LAPD and an attempt to control all of Los Angeles' organized crime |
| 207 | * ''Film/TheLastWitchHunter'': murder of SecretKeeper → plan to resurrect OmnicidalManiac and bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. |
| 208 | * The ''Lethal Weapon'' franchise: |
| 209 | ** ''Film/LethalWeapon'': A simple suicide → a heroin-smuggling operation run by Vietnam War [[FromCamouflageToCriminal special forces troops]]. |
| 210 | ** ''Film/LethalWeapon2'': A traffic stop ([[ForeignMoneyIsProofOfGuilt of a car with a trunk full of Krugerrands]]) → an international drug smuggling conspiracy by South African government officials. |
| 211 | ** ''Film/LethalWeapon3'': A botched armor truck robbery → A corrupt officer stealing weapons from impound and selling them on the black market. |
| 212 | ** ''Film/LethalWeapon4'': A ship full of smuggled Chinese immigrants → A plot to sneak four Chinese Triad bosses into the country. |
| 213 | * ''Film/TheLoneRanger2013'': Dangerous outlaw escapes --> Plot to steal the land of the Comanche which is rich in silver. |
| 214 | * ''Film/{{Looker}}'': Murder of female models → company conspiracy to brainwash customers with subliminal advertising. |
| 215 | * ''Film/MenInBlack'': Disappearance of a man after encountering a UFO and a suicide → theft of a galaxy and possible destruction of the Earth. |
| 216 | * ''Film/MinorityReport'': Review of an old Precrime murder case → Precrime's systemic incarceration of potentially innocent people → A top precop's future murder being an elaborate frameup to keep him from discovering the real culprit behind that old case was actually Precrime's founder (and his friend) to use the victim's clairvoyant daughter to create Precrime in the first place. |
| 217 | * ''Film/MollysGame:'' Molly moves from California to New York, and asks a New York lawyer if it's legal to run high-stakes poker games. He tells her yes, subject to certain conditions, but adds "Don't break the law while you're breaking the law." It will be easier for her to get away with running an illegal poker game if she isn't dealing drugs or prostitutes on the side. |
| 218 | * ''Film/TheNakedGun'': |
| 219 | ** Part 1: Drug smuggling at the docks → plot to assassinate the Queen of England. |
| 220 | ** Part 2½: Bombing --> Conspiracy by big energy companies to kidnap of an environmental scientist to prevent adoption of pro-environmental policies. |
| 221 | * ''Film/TheOtherGuys'': Abduction from police custody of a hedge fund manager --> Attempted theft of the police pension to cover up a corporation's financial loss. |
| 222 | * ''Film/ThePaper'': During the course of their investigation, Henry, Martha and [=McDougal=] find out there's more involved than just a couple of white businessmen getting gunned down in Williamsburg. Turns out they may have been the victims of retaliation for losing a fortune in Mob money, with the assassins spray-painting a racial epithet on their car as a RedHerring. |
| 223 | * ''Film/ThePeopleUnderTheStairs'': Two men attempt to burgle the house of one of the men's former landlords to steal money for his dying mother. In doing so, they discover that the landlords have been abducting children for years. Director Creator/WesCraven based the plot on a news story he read in the 1970s about two burglars who broke into a Los Angeles household and in doing so, revealed to the police two children who had been locked away by their parents. |
| 224 | * ''Film/PoliceAcademy 6'': Zig-zagged. A spree of armed robberies is discovered to be ground work for a real estate scam. The robberies are all committed along the proposed path of a new and still undisclosed railway line which would drive up property prices. The BigBad is using the crime wave he orchestrated to drive property prices down before the reveal, so he can buy up the land for next-to-nothing and then watch the value go to the moon when the railway plans are revealed. What makes this a zig-zag is the fact that the real estate scam would be so staggeringly lucrative that a couple of gunmen knocking over local businesses really is the lesser crime in this case. |
| 225 | * ''Film/{{Predator}}'': Rescue of some government official --> Search & destroy mission of a bunch of South American rebels backed by Russians. Once the mercenaries are killed, however, the stakes get way higher than just politics. |
| 226 | * ''Film/Predator2''. The movie starts with an investigation into a gang war between rival drug organizations, complete with JurisdictionFriction between the LAPD cops and the DEA. It eventually becomes a hunt for an extraterrestrial killer who's slaughtering both cops and drug criminals. |
| 227 | * Defied in ''Film/PulpFiction''. The Wolf asks Jules and Vincent if there is anything wrong with the car, which they had just cleaned thoroughly, so that if he is pulled over by the police, he knows any problems to talk about - and the police won't have a reason to inspect the vehicle, and find any hint of the body or blood the Jules and Vincent had spent time cleaning. |
| 228 | * ''Film/TheReturnOfSherlockHolmes'': As is the story on which it is partially based ("[[Literature/SherlockHolmes The Six Napoleons]]"), an investigation into the seemingly motiveless crime of someone smashing plaster busts of Napoleon uncovers a case of grand theft and murder. |
| 229 | * ''Film/RoboCop1987'': Gas station robbery --> Robocop's own murder --> Partnership of OCP Vice-President and biggest crime lord in Detroit. |
| 230 | * ''Film/{{Showtime}}'': A drug bust leads to the discovery of a dangerous new weapon that is about to hit the streets. Admittedly, it's difficult to call a drug deal operation a "minor crime", but still. Also, the BigBad was ''extremely'' upset that the drug dealer used one of his prototype guns, tipping off the cops. |
| 231 | * ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'': The kidnapping of some German scientists → A plot to build a spaceship that will destroy all life on Earth. |
| 232 | * ''Film/{{Sneakers}}'': The theft of a black box and the murder of its creator → a plot to cause the collapse of the world economy. |
| 233 | * ''Film/SoylentGreen'': Murder of a businessman in an apparent burglary gone wrong → discovering a horrible truth about the entire food supply. |
| 234 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': |
| 235 | ** ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier''. A routine {{hostage situation}} turns out to be an attempt to hijack a starship. |
| 236 | ** ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry''. The murder of the Klingon chancellor is part of a bigger co-conspiracy between the Federation and the Klingon military to remain in a state of perpetual cold war, otherwise each side's admirals and generals would have no purpose in life. |
| 237 | ** ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'': Data goes [[AIIsACrapshoot berserk]] on an alien planet → conspiracy to rob said alien planet of its {{Phlebotinum}} → vengeful genocide of planet's inhabitants. |
| 238 | ** ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'': A series of devastating attacks by a mysterious terrorist → conspiracy to militarize Starfleet from within and deliberately instigate a war with the Klingon Empire which they deemed inevitable. |
| 239 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', an {{assassination attempt}} on a senator → a clone army, that no one seems to remember ordering, ready just as the Supreme Chancellor commissions a Grand Army of the Republic to deal with the Separatist Crisis → (finally discovered in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'') a plot by the Supreme Chancellor to overthrow the Republic and destroy the Jedi. |
| 240 | * Subverted in ''Film/StrangeDays'': While investigating the murder of a rapper and a prostitute, the hero learns that the murders are related to a massive police conspiracy involving "death squads". It turns out that the guy telling him all this is just making it up to distract the hero. It's really just a murder cover-up. |
| 241 | * ''[[Literature/TheStupids The Stupids]]'' ''think'' that there is a conspiracy since their garbage is always being stolen (disposed). It leads them to a corrupt army colonel who sells arms to terrorists. |
| 242 | * ''Film/Super8'': Man derails a train with his truck making ''something'' come out of the wreckage → Bizarre occurrences throughout a small Ohio town → The liberation of a captive extraterrestrial creature synthesizing various Earth objects to construct a vessel and finally go home. |
| 243 | * A variation in ''Film/SuperTroopers''. Two crimes end up hinting at the major plot, but neither can be considered minor. A routine traffic stop reveals a major marijuana smuggling operation through Vermont. A body found in a Winnebago ends up revealing that the local Spurbury police are running protection for the Canadian smugglers. The latter is subverted in that the state troopers don't really figure it out until Ursula pretty much has to show them what's going on. They do get credit for apprehending all the culprits, though. |
| 244 | * ''Film/TellNoOne'': Two bodies are discovered in the woods → an eight-year-old murder and the cover-up behind it. |
| 245 | * ''Film/TradingPlaces'': Ruining Louis Winthope's life over a one dollar bet → Attempt at cornering the frozen concentrate orange juice market. |
| 246 | * Another variation in ''Film/Transylvania65000'' (1985). Two tabloid reporters get sent to Transylvania after their editor receives a tape--obviously fake--of a couple of tourists getting attacked by FrankensteinsMonster. But during the course of their investigation, they discover that something is indeed going on there which involves a disgraced doctor trying to clear his family name, while Transylvanian officials engage in a conspiracy to shut the doctor down. |
| 247 | * ''Film/TheTuxedo'': Murder of a CSA agent → a company's diabolical scheme to monopolize water by poisoning the U.S.' water supply with a fully dehydrating bacterial strain. |
| 248 | * ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'': Truck hijacking → massacre at the docks → manhunt for a legendary and enigmatic crime lord |
| 249 | * ''Film/VantagePoint'': Assassination of the President --> Abduction of the ''real'' President. |
| 250 | * ''Film/TheWayOfTheGun'': Parker and Longbaugh kidnap a surrogate mother hired by mob accountant Hal Chidduck and hold her for ransom. Chidduck can't pay the ransom because it would expose the money laundering services he's been providing to the mob, who would kill him before letting their financial get threatened by the resulting investigation. |
| 251 | * ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': A private eye hired to take some "dirty" pictures → the murders of Marvin Acme and R.K. Maroon, probate fraud, the attempted destruction and gentrification of Toontown and genocide of its residents, the toons. |
| 252 | * ''Film/WildWildWest'': A threat is sent to the White House → A die-hard ex-Confederate builds a SpiderTank to force the surrender of the United States |
| 253 | * ''Film/WrongfullyAccused'': The murder of an EccentricMillionaire → A scheme to assassinate the United Nations Secretary-General, Sir Robert [=McKintyre=]. |
| 254 | * ''Film/{{Zoolander}}'': Disappearance of renowned male model --> Assassination of the Malaysian Prime Minister. |
| 255 | [[/folder]] |
| 256 | |
| 257 | [[folder:Jokes]] |
| 258 | * A cop pulls over a man for speeding. |
| 259 | |
| 260 | -->'''Cop:''' Sir, you were doing 70 in a 50 mph zone. Any particular reason?\ |
| 261 | '''Driver:''' Well, so you wouldn't find the 200 kilos of crack cocaine I've got in the backseat. Or the anthrax bomb in the glove compartment. Or the dead hooker in the trunk. Or the six-year-old girl tied up next to the dead hooker. To be honest, I'm on like fifteen different kinds of drugs right now and I drank six beers before starting out, so I might have left a few out. |
| 262 | |
| 263 | ::The cop, seeing the arrest of a lifetime before him, immediately calls for backup, who proceeds to thoroughly search the car and test the man. Once they're finally done, having found absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing, another cop comes up to the driver and apologizes for wasting his time, as the arresting officer thought he was dealing with some kind of serial killer pedophile terrorist criminal. |
| 264 | |
| 265 | ->'''Driver:''' Quite an imagination he's got. [[RefugeInAudacity And I bet he told you I was doing 70 in a 50 mph zone too, just to round things out!]] |
| 266 | [[/folder]] |
| 267 | |
| 268 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 269 | [[AC:Examples by creator:]] |
| 270 | * Creator/IsaacAsimov: |
| 271 | ** ''Literature/TheNakedSun'': A man killed by his spouse in a fit of anger → a plot to conquer the Galaxy with automated warships. |
| 272 | ** ''Literature/TheRobotsOfDawn'': A man damaging a valuable piece of his own property → an attempt to steal an important theory through GrandTheftPrototype. |
| 273 | ** ''Literature/TheMerchantPrinces'': A few ships vanishing on another state's territory → a general of the Galactic Empire using the state as a proxy and beachhead for his conquest plans on the Periphery. |
| 274 | [[AC:Examples by work:]] |
| 275 | * All the time in the ''Literature/AlexRider'' series, except for maybe ''Scorpia''. |
| 276 | ** ''Stormbreaker'': murder of [=MI6=] agent Ian Rider → plot to kill all of London's schoolchildren. |
| 277 | ** ''Point Blanc'': [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident "accidental" deaths]] of a New York multibillionaire and an ex-KGB general → an apartheid scientist replacing the children of sixteen powerful men around the world with teenage clones of himself. |
| 278 | ** ''Skeleton Key'': sale of uranium to a former Russian general and death of the two men who delivered it → plan by the general to detonate a nuclear bomb among a fleet of decaying nuclear submarines, contaminating most of Europe, seizing power in Russia, and reinstating Soviet communism. |
| 279 | ** ''Eagle Strike'': attempted assassination of journalist Edward Pleasure → attempt to wipe out drugs by dropping 25 American nuclear missiles on worldwide drug sources. |
| 280 | ** ''Ark Angel'': attempted kidnapping of Paul Drevin → plan to drop the Ark Angel hotel from outer space onto Washington, D.C. |
| 281 | ** ''Snakehead'': two deaths of ASIS agents infiltrating a snakehead and the theft of a bomb prototype → plot to wipe out an island conference aiming at ending world poverty by creating a tsunami that will also wipe out most of Western Australia. |
| 282 | ** ''Crocodile Tears'': investigation into an accountant at a bio-research facility → the BigBad's plot to create a famine in Africa via poisoned wheat, then claim millions of dollars through his charity. |
| 283 | ** ''Scorpia Rising'': This one's complicated. The murder of Levi Kroll plus a shooting at Alex's school → a plot to assassinate the American secretary of state and frame Alex (and by extension the British government) for the crime, thereby giving Scorpia leverage to force the British government to return the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin_Marbles Elgin Marbles]] to Greece. Then at the end, it's revealed that the school shooting had nothing to do with Scorpia's plot. That was masterminded by Alan Blunt so Alex would think he was in danger and agree to go to Cairo for [=MI6=]. |
| 284 | * Happens several times in the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' books. |
| 285 | ** ''The Arctic Incident'': Gangsters smuggling AA batteries into Haven → high treason and an attempt to TakeOverTheWorld. |
| 286 | ** ''The Eternity Code'': LEP space probes being hijacked → a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive crooked businessman]]'s plan to illegally destroy his competitors. |
| 287 | ** ''The Opal Deception'': A high-profile criminal escapes from prison → a plot to start an interspecies war. |
| 288 | ** ''The Lost Colony'': An imp being kidnapped by mysterious human criminals → an effort to exterminate the demon race. |
| 289 | ** ''The Time Paradox'': The theft of an endangered lemur → a conspiracy to achieve ultimate power. |
| 290 | * ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Thrembode enchanting Relkin and drugging Bazil to prevent them interfering with his plot to assassinate the king reveals it later to Lessis when she investigates after treating them. |
| 291 | * The ''Baztan Trilogy'' begins with a teenager being murdered and found in a ritualistic position, which eventually leads to the discovery of a {{Cult}} conspiracy that has been murdering babies for ''decades'' and that has people in high places - including the judge that is attached to the investigation. And the main character's [[AbusiveParents mother]] is one of the ringleaders and had tried to do her in when she was a baby. |
| 292 | * Creator/IanRankin's novel ''Bleeding Hearts'' features an assassin who is contracted to kill a TV reporter. When he carries out the hit but is nearly arrested, he believes he was set up and sets out to find out why, eventually uncovering and dismantling an evil cult. In an interesting use of the DetectivePatsy trope, he was hired and set up by the same person, the reporter, in order for him to discover the truth about the cult. |
| 293 | * In ''Literature/TheCaseOfTheToxicSpellDump'', a routine EPA investigation into a potential leak at an industrial waste dump uncovers a conspiracy to revive a GodOfEvil. |
| 294 | * ''Literature/TheCatInTheStacksMysteries'': In book 2, Charlie is invited to James Delacorte's house to inventory his rare book collection, since Delacorte thinks a family member has stolen from him. This puts Charlie in place to investigate Delacorte's subsequent murder, which is actually committed for unrelated reasons. |
| 295 | * ''Literature/CityOfDevils'' starts with a simple missing mummy case and spirals into the discovery of a ring of powerful monsters including some law enforcement, illegally kidnapping humans and turning them into monsters on film as a bizarre form of pornography. |
| 296 | ** [[Literature/FiftyFeetOfTrouble The sequel]] ups the ante by starting with a couple missing persons (and one missing toad) cases and a secret admirer, and turns into the creation of Godzilla. |
| 297 | * In ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'', the French police are baffled by a series of seemingly-unconnected bank robberies and jewelry heists. It turns out they're being orchestrated by the OAS terrorist group to fund the titular assassin's plot to kill UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle. |
| 298 | * ''Literature/DanShambleZombiePI'' books; |
| 299 | ** ''Death Warmed Over'': Divorce settlement → VanHelsingHateCrime via pharmaceuticals. |
| 300 | ** ''Hair Raising'': Complaint about body-parts store's service → OrganTheft ring. |
| 301 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' City Watch novels: |
| 302 | ** ''Literature/MenAtArms'': A break-in at the Assassins' Guild → a plot to overthrow the Patrician. |
| 303 | ** ''Literature/FeetOfClay'': The death of a palace maid's grandmother → solving the otherwise-unsolvable poisoning of the Patrician. |
| 304 | ** ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'': The murder of a rubber goods manufacturer and the theft of a replica Scone of Stone → a plot to overthrow the Low King of the Dwarfs. |
| 305 | ** ''Literature/{{Thud}}'': The murder of a rabble-rousing dwarf, and the theft of a painting → a plot to prevent peace between dwarfs and trolls by obfuscating their shared history. |
| 306 | ** ''Literature/{{Snuff}}'': The death of a goblin ([[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman not strictly murder]] except in the soul of Sam Vimes) → a massive smuggling ring and slave plantations. |
| 307 | *** Vimes actually [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this while talking with another character, referencing a case wherein a man [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals had killed his dog]], with Lord Vetinari ordering Vimes to search the man's house, stating that "where one finds little crimes, one often finds larger crimes." Vimes confirms to the other character that they did find larger crimes connected to the dog-killer. |
| 308 | * ''Literature/DreamPark'': In ''The Barsoom Project'', electronic tampering with a high-tech LARP → multiple acts of lethal sabotage in support of covert corporate takeover scheme. |
| 309 | * ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' does this almost [[OncePerEpisode once per book]]. |
| 310 | ** ''Literature/{{Storm Front|DresdenFiles}}'': Hired to find a woman's missing husband and help the police with a murder → uncovering an AxeCrazy practitioner of BlackMagic. |
| 311 | ** ''Literature/SummerKnight'': Investigating a suspicious death → averting a faerie war. |
| 312 | ** ''Literature/DeathMasks'': Recovering a stolen religious artifact → preventing a souped-up Black Plague. |
| 313 | ** ''Literature/DeadBeat'': Finding a certain book for a vampire → preventing some necromancers from [[GodhoodSeeker achieving godhood]]. |
| 314 | ** ''Literature/WhiteNight'': Investigating the murders of a few low-level witches → stopping a coup in the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent White Court]]. |
| 315 | ** ''Literature/SmallFavor'': Checking out an attack on [[TheMafia Marcone]] → preventing [[LittleMissBadass Ivy]] from becoming a [[DealWithTheDevil Denarian]]. |
| 316 | ** ''Literature/TurnCoat'': Giving the defamed [[InspectorJavert Morgan]] asylum → outing TheMole in the White Council. |
| 317 | ** ''Literature/{{Changes}}'': Saving [[FriendlyTarget Harry's daughter]] from [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Red Court kidnappers]] → Killing the ''entire Red Court''. |
| 318 | ** ''Literature/ColdDays'': Killing an immortal (Maeve) to... stopping an Outsider plot to rule the world, and nuke half of Chicago. |
| 319 | * Once the villain of ''Literature/EmilAndTheDetectives'' is arrested for stealing a few bills off a kid, a further search reveals him to carry the cash from a recent bank robbery. |
| 320 | * ''Literature/{{Fatherland}}'': An alternate history in which Germany won WWII and a NaziProtagonist detective discovers the truth about the Holocaust after investigating a series of murders and suicides (the government officially claimed that Jews and other Holocaust victims were being resettled in Eastern Europe). |
| 321 | * In ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'', the investigation into the murder of Jon Arryn leads Eddard Stark to evidence that none of the heirs to the throne are actually the children of the king and the assumption that Arryn was murdered to cover up this fact. This knowledge eventually leads to a succession crisis called the War of the Five Kings, and Stark's own execution. Ironically, it is revealed later that Arryn wasn't murdered to cover up the Queen's affair at all, but rather because Arryn's wife wanted to be free to marry the man she'd been having an affair with for years. |
| 322 | * ''Literature/{{Goldfinger}}'': Literature/JamesBond is sent to investigate an industrial magnate suspected merely of illegally smuggling gold out of the UK. He discovers in the process that Goldfinger is plotting with Chinese intelligence to rob Fort Knox. |
| 323 | * ''Literature/HalfMoonInvestigations'' has the young detective investigating a series of sabotaging attacks on various members of the community, but in the process, he discovers that several of the events were carried out by a separate conspiracy. YMMV as to which conspiracy was the major or minor, but the fact that the one accidentally discovered was being carried out by ten-year-old girls with all the efficiency of an adult... |
| 324 | * ''Literature/HarryPotter'': |
| 325 | ** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone''. The break-in at Gringotts → Voldemort attempting to rise back to power. |
| 326 | ** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''. The escape of a famous convict → A devoted servant trying to rejoin with Voldemort. The "devoted servant" being actually a snivelling coward who framed said convict. |
| 327 | ** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire''. The disappearance of a Ministry official → a genocidal maniac planning to return to power. |
| 328 | * In the UsefulNotes/ColdWar thriller ''An H-Bomb for Alice'' by Ian Stewart, a detective investigates the apparent suicide of the Australian Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. Although he was about to pass an important bill, there appears to be [[NeverSuicide no motive for murder]] as no government or mining interests are threatened by it. It turns out the Soviet Union is planning to invade China, and a hidden strike force is waiting to seize the US surveillance station at Pine Gap which they fear will provide prior warning of the attack. The strike force was operating under the cover of a hippy colony that would have been evicted from Aboriginal land if the bill had been passed. |
| 329 | * ''Literature/HerculePoirot'': |
| 330 | ** In "The Adventure of the Clapham Cook", the disappearance of a cook from her employer's place → the murder of a bank clerk and a plan to spirit away thousands of pounds in securities. |
| 331 | ** In ''Literature/HickoryDickoryDock'', Poirot gets interested in a student hostel because of a series of petty thefts. A kleptomaniac seems to be stealing random items, most of them with no real value. Poirot's investigation ends up uncovering connections between the owner of the hostel and smuggling operation. |
| 332 | ** ''Literature/HalloweenParty'': The death of a young girl at a Hallowe'en party → a conspiracy revealed to have murdered several people for the sake of securing an inheritance. |
| 333 | * ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': In ''On Basilisk Station'', routine policing to stop smuggling and the murder of several local cops leads to the discovery of a plot for invasion. Amusingly played with in that the people doing the plotting try to call the invasion ''off'' and would have been able to do it unmolested if their plot hadn't been so revealed. |
| 334 | * ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' starts off with this. Murder of a news columnist → Wheels within wheels conspiracy for control of Earth, involving rock bands, undead Nazis and EldritchAbomination(s). |
| 335 | * ''Literature/InDeath'': |
| 336 | ** ''Origin in Death'': Murder of a "saintly" doctor → massive decades-old illegal human-cloning and people-made-to-order operation. |
| 337 | ** ''Born in Death'': Murder of two young accountants → tax fraud and other financial crimes → baby-selling ring. |
| 338 | ** ''Faithless in Death'': Murder of artist → BreedingCult involved in HumanTrafficking and related crimes. |
| 339 | * ''Literature/InTheSnowsOfHaz'': Finding [[SmugSnake Dimali]]'s murderer → foiling a plot to topple TheEmpire. |
| 340 | * Just like the films, ''Literature/JamesBond'' had this as a common trope: |
| 341 | ** ''Literature/{{Moonraker}}'': National hero cheating at cards → plot to nuke London with the most powerful missile ever built by said national hero, who is actually an ex-Nazi. |
| 342 | ** ''Literature/DrNo'': Disappearance of British agent and his secretary → plot by EvilGenius to shut down the missile launches at Cape Canaveral while selling the missile's secrets to Moscow. |
| 343 | ** ''Literature/{{Goldfinger}}'': Richest man in England cheating at cards and smuggling gold → absolutely insane plot to blow Fort Knox open with a nuke and steal all the gold. Bond even lampshades this trope at one point in the book, musing how he went from simple investigation to being tangled up in Goldfinger's scheme. |
| 344 | ** ''Literature/ForYourEyesOnly'' has one in "Risico": Bond contracted to kill famous smuggler → working with said famous smuggler to kill Bond's client, who is a major drug lord. |
| 345 | ** ''Literature/{{Thunderball}}'': Attempted murder of Bond at health clinic → plot to destroy Miami with two stolen nuclear warheads by NebulousEvilOrganization. |
| 346 | ** ''Literature/OnHerMajestysSecretService'': Bond getting kidnapped by Corsican mob boss → scheme to stop Blofeld from devastate England with biological weapons made at a health clinic in Switzerland. |
| 347 | ** ''Literature/YouOnlyLiveTwice'': Meeting with [=MI6=] ally in Japan → final attempt to assassinate Blofeld for once and for all. |
| 348 | ** ''Literature/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'': BrainwashedAndCrazy Bond attempting to kill M → plot to assassinate psychotic Cuban hitman. |
| 349 | ** ''Literature/ColonelSun'': M gets kidnapped → plot by former Nazi and sadistic PLA Colonel to mortar a peace conference. |
| 350 | ** ''Literature/TriggerMortis'': Going undercover at Nuremberg Rally to protect British racing driver → plot to blow up the Empire State building by South Korean millionaire. |
| 351 | * ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' usually has Bob, one of the titular organization's field agents/computational demonologists/IT guys sent out on a minor call, only to pull the string on something larger: |
| 352 | ** ''Literature/TheAtrocityArchive'': Extract a British national being kept inside America by the CIA's occult wing → stop an EldritchAbomination from crossing over from a world where the Nazis won World War II. |
| 353 | ** "The Concrete Jungle": Get sent to Milton Keynes because there are one too many concrete cows → uncover and prevent an internal coup within the Laundry. |
| 354 | ** ''Literature/TheJenniferMorgue'': Go to a conference for occult intelligence across the EU → get roped into a James Bond plot and have to stop a mad billionaire from resurrecting an ancient cyborg war god. |
| 355 | ** ''The Apocalypse Codex'': Get sent to oversee an external contractor who's looking into a televangelist's close relationship with the Prime Minister → stop said televangelist from summoning an EldritchAbomination in the middle of Colorado Springs. |
| 356 | * "Coldheart", a novella in the ''Literature/LeagueOfMagi'' collection of the same name, starts with a missing woman and goes into hundreds of kidnappings, immortal sorcerers, superpowered beings, monsters, and oh yeah, a ritual summoning of a wendigo. |
| 357 | * ''Literature/LordPeterWimsey'': In ''Murder Must Advertise'', the murder of an advertising copywriter → massive cocaine-smuggling ring. |
| 358 | * ''Literature/TheMacbethMurderMystery'': Parodied when a GenreSavvy DetectiveDrama reader mistakes the book of [[{{Theatre/Macbeth}} ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'']] for a DetectiveDrama, → TheReveal of the identity of the real murderer, menacing the [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespearean]] [[LitClassTropes canon]] of the last four hundred years. |
| 359 | * In ''Literature/NerveZero'', the hero just wanted to find an old flame to get her off-world and ended up discovering a cult, an investigation by the secret police, and a plot to evacuate the planet. |
| 360 | * ''Literature/No6'': One mysterious death, then more, leads to the truth of an entire utopian city being used as test subjects to revive Eliurias. |
| 361 | * The mid-war ''Literature/PhilipMarlowe'' novel ''Literature/TheLadyInTheLake'' starts with finding a missing (possibly run away on her own) wife and leads to three murders and mafia involvement in defense industries. |
| 362 | * In ''Literature/Quarantine1992'', an investigation into the disappearance of a severely developmentally delayed woman from a care home eventually reveals a plot to radically alter the nature of reality at a quantum level. |
| 363 | * In ''Literature/RainbowSix'', the FBI carries out a search for a missing woman, believing it to be part of a kidnapping or serial killing, only to find a plan to wipe out most of humanity. |
| 364 | ** ''Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger'' starts off with the Coast Guard pulling over suspicious yacht, only to discover the men aboard it have murdered the family of a wealthy American businessman, which leads to the discovery of his connections to a Colombian drug cartel. |
| 365 | * ''The Reckoning'': A beloved minister is murdered in 1946 Mississippi by a prominent citizen who takes his reasons to the grave → MisplacedRetribution for cheating with said prominent citizen's wife, resulting in her having to have a painful abortion. |
| 366 | * The ''Literature/RepairmanJack'' novels by F. Paul Wilson often start with Jack being asked to solve a small mystery, such as a missing person or a robbery. This mystery invariably turns out to be related in some way to the bigger 'Adversary Cycle' arc that spans the whole series. |
| 367 | * ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'': ''The Hanging Tree'' starts off with Peter having to fulfill his owed favour to Lady Ty by making sure her daughter isn't implicated in a suspicious death by drug overdose, which is tied into an investigation of how the teenagers at the party in question got access to a flat in the highly-secure One Hyde Park. This leads to the identity of the [[BigBad Faceless Man]] being exposed. |
| 368 | * In the ''Literature/SanoIchiro'' novel ''The Samurai’s Wife'', Sano’s investigation into the death of the imperial left minister eventually exposes a plot to overthrow the Tokugawa government and reinstate the emperor as ruler of Japan. |
| 369 | * ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' stories had a lot of this. |
| 370 | ** "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons". A madman is stealing Napoleon busts and smashing them → The recovery of a stolen pearl. |
| 371 | ** "The Blue Carbuncle". Man loses his Christmas dinner → The recovery of the eponymous stolen gemstone (seriously). |
| 372 | ** "The Red-Headed League". A man was a member of an exclusive club only for redheads → A bank heist using an underground tunnel. |
| 373 | ** "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches". A woman gets a too-good-to-be-true job offer → Turns out that she was there to take the place of the daughter of his employer who is imprisoned somewhere in the house. |
| 374 | * ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'': Destroying a bandit hideout and looting some of the contents reveals a plot to revive '''THE''' Darkest Lord of the Demonic forces and possibly destroy the world. |
| 375 | * In the ''Literature/TanteiTeamKZJikenNote'' series, Aya {{discussed|trope}} this trope with Kuroki during ''The Backyard Knows'', expressing some disappointment that the crime involved in the arc was indeed minor, performed by a perennial small-time criminal without more apparent complexities. But the story does go that way, although still downplayed: it lead to a case of museum theft which causes the loss of some expensive butterfly specimens. |
| 376 | * ''Literature/TheTeresaKnightTrilogy'': In ''Strip Poker'' Teresa looking into blackmail and an ordinary murder leads her to discovering an international conspiracy by corporations smuggling coltan mined inside the Democratic Republic of Cargo by forced child labor that's connected with brutal rebels who have committed countless atrocities. |
| 377 | * ''Literature/TheThinkingMachine'': In "The Problem of the Organ Grinder", the investigation of what appears to be a truly pointless crime -- the murder of an organ grinder's monkey--leads the exposure of a major [[CounterfeitCash counterfeiting ring]]. |
| 378 | * Several of Creator/AndreiBelyanin's ''Literature/TsarGorokhsDetectiveAgency'' novels use this trope: |
| 379 | ** The very first (eponymous) novel starts with the theft of the Tsar's chrysoprase ring and a chest of gold coins. This leads to the unraveling of a massive conspiracy to destroy the city. |
| 380 | ** The second novel, ''The Plot of the Black Mass'', starts with several merchants complaining about the theft of black fabric. This leads to a mad rush to stop a demonic SummoningRitual that would leave the land in ruin. |
| 381 | ** The third novel, ''The Flying Ship'', starts with the theft of the blueprints for the latest novelty invention. This leads to an attempt to stop an EvilOverlord from building a fleet of flying warships capable of laying waste to any city. |
| 382 | ** The fourth novel, ''Bride Elimination'', starts with the theft of a diplomatic gift. This leads to an attempt by a foreign diplomat to start a multinational war. |
| 383 | * The ''Literature/VenusPrime'' series loves this trope. In the first book, the investigation into a case of sabotage leads to the uncovering of an elaborate plot to steal a very expensive book, which in turn flushes out a member of a hidden conspiracy involving eugenics and aliens. Similarly, the second book starts with the investigation into an attempted murder, which uncovers a secret drug ring, which ends up being connected to the above-mentioned conspiracy. The third book starts with an investigation into the murder of a colony administrator and exposes a nasty union fight, which ''again'' turns out to be connected to an ancient conspiracy... |
| 384 | * Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': ''Literature/{{Komarr}}'' starts with the investigation of a collision between a freighter and an orbital terraforming mirror. It makes a detour to a modest embezzlement scheme before settling on a plot to eliminate the only wormhole link between Barrayar and the rest of the populated galaxy that would actually, due to incomplete analysis of the underlying science, result in the destruction of at least one space station with several thousand residents and transients aboard. |
| 385 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 386 | ** This happens with amusing regularity to [[Literature/CiaphasCain COMMISSAR CIAPHAS CAIN, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!!]]. With the caveat that "minor crime" is usually a planet-engulfing war, and "major plot" is something with the potential to severely upset the balance of power across the ''galaxy''. There's also a RunningGag that Cain will find or contrive some piece of busywork on scant evidence to avoid the serious fighting and fall face-first into the ''real'' threat or a faceoff with the enemy leaders. |
| 387 | ** In ''Literature/{{Ravenor}}'', the titular inquisitor's investigation into the [[FantasticDrug flect]] trade reveals that a cabal of rogue traders are smuggling Chaos-tainted computers onto the sub-sector capital. This, in turn, reveals that a cult lead by highly-influential members of the sub-sector government is using those computers to reconstruct a dead LanguageOfMagic in order to become gods. |
| 388 | * In ''Literature/TheYiddishPolicemensUnion'', a man's murder (while stretching the limits of ''minor'' crime) eventually reveals a plot by conservative Jews in collaboration with right-wing America to overthrow Palestine (which in this AlternateUniverse is still a widely recognized sovereign state, {{UsefulNotes/Israel}} only having existed in the modern world for a few months) by blowing up the al-Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, which is dramatically worse. |
| 389 | [[/folder]] |
| 390 | |
| 391 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 392 | * ''Series/TwentyFour'': |
| 393 | ** Season 1: Plane crash → assasination attempt on David Palmer. |
| 394 | ** Season 3: Prison escape → terrorist plot by Jack Bauer's former ally to use a virus. |
| 395 | ** Season 4: Train bombing → launch of a nuclear missile. |
| 396 | ** Season 5: Terrorists seize airport → Nuclear missile launch |
| 397 | ** Season 6: Terror bombings --> Nuclear bombing on US soil |
| 398 | * ''Series/TheATeam'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheATeamS2E11Steel Steel]]", the Team is hired by a construction company manager to deal with a villainous CrookedContractor who is trying to muscle the company out of a demolition contract. The Team eventually finds out that the reason the crooked contractor is so determined is because he is under the thumb of "Crazy Tommy T", the local kingpin, who got rid of one of his former fellow kingpins [[ConstructiveBodyDisposal and dumped his corpse in the foundation of the now-condemned building]]. |
| 399 | * ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': The team investigating how an Average Joe gained superpowers → The discovery of [[NebulousEvilOrganization Project Centipede]] → The season-long investigation into this group and its [[TheGhost enigmatic]] leader, [[BigBad The Clairvoyant]] → The uncovering of HYDRA's plot to destroy SHIELD from within. |
| 400 | * ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': The Hood taking out corrupt people → A conspiracy to destroy the impoverished part of the city. |
| 401 | ** Season 2: An unethical bid by an opportunist to be Mayor → The BigBad's goal to destroy the ''entire city'' to spite The Hero. |
| 402 | * ''Series/AvataroSentaiDonbrothers'': Discussed. The reason Tsubasa is [[spoiler: released after Tsuyoshi rats him out in a jealous rage]] is because the police force had already been on the receiving end of this trope early in the show. The Cat Juto that [[spoiler: kidnapped and replaced the missing persons at the end of Episode 9 (Notably, Detective Kenji Sayama)]] caused so many minor disturbances due to their limited ability to adhere to TheMasquerade that the investigator assigned to the case is convinced the missing people CameBackWrong and that a conspiracy's afoot, ([[ProperlyParanoid It is.]]) enlisting the Donbrother to help her in exchange for amnesty. |
| 403 | * ''Series/BabylonBerlin'': Pornographic filmmaking (extremely illegal in 1920s Germany) and blackmail of public figures with the same → robbery, illegal arms trade, murder & conspiracy to commit high treason. |
| 404 | * ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Jimmy notices some minor overbilling on the part of his elderly client's nursing home. Digging further, he finds that the home's entire parent corporation has been engaging in outright fraud on its clients to the tune of millions of dollars. |
| 405 | * ''Series/{{Bones}}:'' A recovered skull → A cannibalistic serial killer who ends up recruiting Zack as his apprentice. |
| 406 | * ''Series/BurdenOfTruth'': Taylor follows a john who beats up sex workers. She finds out he is one of many people being blackmailed by the seemingly reformed Sam Mercer. |
| 407 | * ''Series/BurnNotice'': "False Flag": Michael's Client of the Week is a CPA who reported some minor discrepancies in one of his client company's books. Said company hired an assassin to kill him and his entire family before he could reveal that they are the front for a huge smuggling operation. |
| 408 | -->'''Doug''': I can't believe this is happening! I'm a CPA, for Christ's sake!\ |
| 409 | '''Sam''': [[BoringButPractical A CPA brought down Al Capone.]] There's a reason your bosses don't want you to testify. |
| 410 | * ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': This appears to have been the case for Beckett's mother's murder. Decade-old murder of a lawyer → wide-ranging corruption and conspiracy, the full extent of which has yet to be revealed. |
| 411 | ** Also, murder of a taxi driver → plot to detonate a DirtyBomb in New York. |
| 412 | ** But subverted with a second season episode where vehicular homicide of a bike messenger → terrorist attack. The attack idea came out of the sender being listed S. Nadal Matar, who turns out to be on the terror watch list. ESU breaks down a door to discover an old lady named Sally ''Neidermeyer''. |
| 413 | ---> '''Castle:''' Our bad. |
| 414 | ** Also subverted in "The Lives of Others": [[RearWindowInvestigation evidence of foul play and possible murder in the apartment across the street]] → birthday party for Castle! |
| 415 | * ''Series/ColdCase'': |
| 416 | ** "Late Returns". A homicide victim has a shrine to a woman who died years earlier. It leads the cold case team to a politician who was molested by his sister. |
| 417 | ** "The Sleepover". Mentally challenged man kills someone → parental abuse and murder of a child. |
| 418 | ** "The Red & The Blue". Wife shoots her cheating husband → murder of someone they both knew. |
| 419 | ** "Lonely Hearts". Conman commits suicide → conman and his lover took advantage of and killed women. |
| 420 | ** "The Road". Minor traffic incident → serial killer. |
| 421 | ** "Bad Reputation". A raid into a drug den leads to a discovery that an infamous criminal was murdered a long time ago. |
| 422 | ** "Breaking News". Wrongful employment termination → massive coverup by a plastics company whose employees are dying from asbestos exposure → murder of the investigating reporter. |
| 423 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'': Investigation into who ruined a biology class project → catching a serial backpack thief → uncovering supplies being stolen for a meth lab. Subverted in that they don't care about those things and remain solely focused on who killed their yam. |
| 424 | * ''Series/CrazyLikeAFox'': In "Sunday in the Park with Harry," finding a pickpocketed wallet leads to the discovery of a murder scheme. |
| 425 | * ''Series/CriminalMinds'': |
| 426 | ** DEA raid on a suspected meth lab → an impending terrorist attack using nerve gas. |
| 427 | ** Investigating a series of spree stabbings in New York City → Uncovering a massive terrorist plot. |
| 428 | * This has happened frequently on ''Series/CSIMiami''. To provide a few examples: |
| 429 | ** Gang shooting (that was pretty unusual for a Miami gang shootout because it ended with various gang members ''vaporized and literally splattered all over a warehouse's wall'') → evidence of conspiracy to sell classified military weaponry (an {{Expy}} of the "Metal Storm") to foreign enemies. |
| 430 | ** Junkie appears with his neck snapped → dead junkie turns out to be a radiological hazard, leading the Miami police to suspect potential nuclear terrorism → local crusading lawyer turns out to have been poisoned with radioactive dye, which leads to the suspicion that a local medical company (that the lawyer was investigating for corrupt and incompetent practices) had performed the (slow and ''very'' painful) assassination → StalkerWithACrush informant within the company that provided the lawyer with important evidence for her case had taken the fact that she didn't like him back ''very'' badly, leading to him stealing the dye from the company's nuclear medicine supplies to poison her, and snapping the neck of the junkie when he tried to steal the syringes that carried the dye, believing them to be drugs. Zig-zagged all over the place, and at least the lawyer was able to pass away knowing that her poisoner had been caught and the company was going to get the book tossed at it for both the malpracticing she was investigating and allowing the dye to be so easy to steal. |
| 431 | ** An accidental death in a child beauty pageant → serial kidnapping and raping of 6-year-old girls by a pederast. |
| 432 | * ''Series/Daredevil2015'': The exposure of a numbers racket inside Union Allied Construction LLC → the uncovering of [[ComicBook/TheKingpin a powerful figure controlling Hell's Kitchen]]. |
| 433 | * ''Series/DarkWinds'': The Navajo Police investigating suspected DomesticAbuse against Sally Growing Thunder reveals the Buffalo Society, a radical group who had committed the armored car robbery and murders which the series opens with. |
| 434 | * In the ''Series/{{Decoy}}'' episode "Death Watch", Casey infiltrates a ring of department store shoplifters and discovers that they're also working as hitmen. |
| 435 | * Subverted in ''{{Series/Dexter}}''. In season 1, while pursuing the Ice Truck Killer, the Miami PD comes across a man named Neil Perry due to his having traffic tickets issued near the scenes of the Killer's kidnappings. The subversion comes because the man is actually a computer hacker who specifically planted those minor pieces of evidence in order to lead the police to himself. Therefore he could falsely confess for the killings and [[FameThroughInfamy be famous]]. |
| 436 | * ''Series/TheDoctorBlakeMysteries'': In "The Price of Love", Charlie and Lucien discover a murder (and later all kinds of dark goings-on at a military base) when Charlie stops a car for speeding, and Lucien notices blood dripping from the boot. |
| 437 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E4DaleksInManhattan "Daleks in Manhattan"]], the Doctor and Martha land in 1930 New York City and find that the local Hooverville shantytown is dealing with a swathe of abductions of its [[DisposableVagrant residents]]. As you may have guessed from the title, they find out upon investigating that the Daleks are behind it. |
| 438 | * Happened on occasion in ''Series/DueSouth''. One notable example was Frasier and Vecchio stopping to ticket a man who had parked in a fire lane, only to discover the guy's trunk was full of illegal firearms. |
| 439 | ** The show also had a fair bit of fun playing with this, showing us Frasier doggedly pursuing someone (through a blizzard, say, or over a waterfall) only to charge them with a minor-sounding crime which turned out to be far, far more serious than the description made it sound. (E.g. "That's the last time he'll fish over the limit!" → The crook's catch was measured in ''tons'' since he had been blast-fishing, and Frasier has also confiscated all the explosives and donated the fish to local tribes.) |
| 440 | * ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': Murder of a conspiracy theorist → A member of a group that created a terrorist plot for a government training simulation that worked too well killing/mentally incapacitating the other members of said group to prevent knowledge of their plot from spreading. It turns out that the two cases are completely unrelated; the conspiracy theorist was killed by another conspiracy theorist over a disagreement about a different theory. |
| 441 | ** Someone attempts to poison a prize racehorse → the capture of a world-infamous drug cartel assassin. |
| 442 | ** An older man is found dead of an apparent heart attack dressed in a leather gimp suit → the nanny of the dead man's children was accused of killing her abusive father in a similar way → turns out the dead man was a child molester who sexually abused his older son; the older son poisoned his father to prevent his little brother from being abused, and tried to frame the nanny. |
| 443 | ** Detective Bell is investigating a break-in at a dockside warehouse → discovers his boss is a Mafia plant and barely averts a city-wide mob war. |
| 444 | ** Played in an episode where a van runs a red light and crashes into a construction truck. The van driver and a bystander die in an explosion and the investigators find that the van was full of gasoline. The police immediately jump to traffic accident -> terrorist bomb triggered prematurely. However, Sherlock's investigation uncovers that the van driver was a thief who was transporting stolen gasoline. The investigation appears to be closed but Sherlock is curious about people who knew the dead driver insisting that he was a ConsummateProfessional and would never run a red light while transporting stolen goods. Sherlock keeps investigating and discovers that the traffic lights were hacked. The investigation now balloons into: van full of stolen gasoline -> nefarious hacker sabotaging New York City's traffic systems. It looks like it might expand to reveal a government conspiracy but, as witnesses come forward, it starts to deflate again till the truth is revealed: van full of stolen gasoline -> plot by construction company owner to sabotage a rival construction company and get a lucrative government contract. |
| 445 | ** Dock security guard being beaten into a coma → grand larceny of millions of dollars worth of maple syrup. |
| 446 | ** Lampshaded by Sherlock at the end of "Possibility Two", when Joan has discovered that Sherlock's "favorite" dry cleaners are the front for a smuggling/arms dealing operation: ''"A good detective knows that every task, every interaction, no matter how seemingly banal, has the potential to contain multitudes. I live my life alert to this possibility."'' |
| 447 | * In the third season of ''Series/{{Engrenages}}'', an apparently trivial incident in which a child was bitten by an inadequately-trained security dog leads to the uncovering of large-scale council corruption (the use of the dangerous dog was a sign of general corrupt penny-pinching). |
| 448 | * ''Series/FBIMostWanted'': In "[[Recap/FBIMostWantedS01E03 Hairtrigger]]", Doug Timmons' car gets rear-ended by a drunk driver and a passing cop stops to investigate. When the cop goes to look in Doug's busted trunk, Doug panics and shoots the cop and then the drunk driver. Investigating this crime puts the FBI on the trail of a planned massacre. |
| 449 | * This seems to be the point of the BuddyCopShow, ''Series/TheGoodGuys''. An old NobleBigotWithABadge CowboyCop [[OddCouple is paired with a young]] ByTheBookCop and sent to investigate minor crimes (vandalism, shoplifting, etc.) to [[ReassignmentBackfire keep them out of trouble, but the duo almost always stumble across something much bigger]] (drug smugglers, car theft ring, etc.). |
| 450 | * ''{{Series/Hightown}}'': A single young woman's murder turns out to be tied into the work of a major crime syndicate. |
| 451 | * ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In "Brig Break", a handful of prisoners busting out of the brig gradually escalates into a plot to destroy the base with a nuclear explosion and selling stolen nuclear weapons to UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein. |
| 452 | * Not a few ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' episodes start with some minor problem, such investigating a noise in an alley, lead to a dead body (or two), and often then into something much, much worse, often involving murder, prostitution, and/or financial skulduggery. Fairly common on ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', but turns up on the other variations as well. |
| 453 | ** An early episode involves the murder of an off-duty officer who was a childhood friend of Logan's. As the cops investigate, they find that the dead cop was on the trail of a former priest who was a serial child abuser, and that said former priest lives only a few blocks from where the victim's body was found. The detectives eventually determine that the cop's death was [[SuicideNotMurder actually a suicide]] and the responding officers staged it as a murder so his family could get his pension, but by then, [[FramingTheGuiltyParty the case against the priest is starting to take shape.]] |
| 454 | ** One episode opened with a dispatching error sending Briscoe and Curtis to what they think is a murder, but turns out to be the discovery of a dead horse instead. Much to their frustration, their Lieutenant tells them to look into it anyway (there being no other pressing cases at the time) and their investigation eventually leads to a con artist who may have murdered his millionaire patron. |
| 455 | ** In another episode, a jogger had a heart attack in the park. When one of the officers on scene stepped into the bushes to, ah, [[NatureTinkling take care of some business]], he found a murder victim. (Of course, it turns out the jogger was actually murdered too, it just takes them awhile to figure that part out.) |
| 456 | ** In another, the burglary of a safety-box depository uncovers wads of cash being stored there that date to an armed robbery/homicide from the 1960s. |
| 457 | ** In one episode, a man receives an email from his uncle where the uncle confesses to killing his wife. That investigation is fairly straightforward, but then they learn the email was sent as part of a program designed to send out messages in the event of the Rapture; the system was inadvertently activated when one of the men behind the scheme was murdered, and ''that'' case isn't so simple. |
| 458 | ** A pair of cops are asked by a couple to find their missing dog. They think it's just a waste of time only to find the dog among others being used for an illegal dog fighting club by some rich guys who the cops immediately arrest. The detectives are then called in as one of the dead dogs has a human finger in their stomach, leading to a murder committed to cover up how a multi-millionaire has been selling "rare" wine that's actually quite cheap. |
| 459 | ** This can sometimes be done to a ridiculously huge degree. One episode involves finding the body of what looks like a hobo in a stairwell and ends up with a UN trial involving the Russian mafia. |
| 460 | ** In one ''SVU'' episode, a schizophrenic man [[AccidentalKidnapping kidnaps a child]] after mistaking the boy for his own estranged son and kills the man who tries to stop him. The detectives ultimately determine that the group home he had been living at was corrupt and their negligence had led to the death of another resident, which they attempted to pass off as a suicide; the man had witnessed this, so the group home had intentonally [[MedicationTampering messed with the man's treatment]] so that his symptoms would return and he wouldn't be taken seriously if he tried to report what he saw. |
| 461 | ** The 14th season finale of ''SVU'' involves the arrest of a man for indecent exposure; he eventually turns out to have perpetrated multiple sex crimes, up to and including sexual torture and murder, in several different states, but has managed to [[KarmaHoudini escape conviction]] in every case. |
| 462 | ** Doubled in ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', when the motive for the VictimOfTheWeek's murder almost always turned out to be ''far'' more complicated than implied in the opening sequence. |
| 463 | ** In the mothership episode "Birthright", the murder of local vendor leads Fontana and Green to a dimwitted negligent mother, who suddenly dies in custody, which in turn leads them to a secret plot to sterilize scores of poor black and Hispanic women. |
| 464 | * Several ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' episodes do this, albeit on a smaller scale than a lot of the examples: |
| 465 | ** "The Homecoming Job". Coverup of a friendly fire investigation → multi-billion-dollar money-laundering scheme. |
| 466 | ** "The Snow Job". Negligent home contracting job → nationwide foreclosure-related fraud. |
| 467 | ** "The Stork Job". Spanish Prisoner scam with orphans → weapons smuggling. |
| 468 | ** "The Gone-Fishin' Job". People being scammed by fake IRS agents → anti-government militia planning a terrorist attack. |
| 469 | ** The canon novel "The Con Job". Dealing with a forger stealing original work from aging comic artists → preventing a Japanese real estate developer/crime boss from ''killing everyone at Comic-Con with a car bomb'' so he can set it up in his own hotel(!). |
| 470 | ** There ''are'' some ''big'' ones from Season 3 onwards, however; |
| 471 | *** "The Inside Job". A theft from an agricultural company → ''plot to cause a global famine so the company can profit from its monopoly on blight-resistant wheat.'' |
| 472 | *** "The Double-Blind Job". Accidentally foiled kidnapping/assassination → plot to knowingly release a toxic drug nationwide, killing anywhere from thousands to ''millions'', earning the Evil Drug Company '''billions''' for a 15% fine. |
| 473 | --->'''EDC CEO''': That's like tipping your waiter. "Thank you very much for taking our drugs. Here's a little something for your family." |
| 474 | *** "The Big Bang Job". Investigation of international criminal → ''plot to destroy Washington DC with a prototype EMP city-buster.'' |
| 475 | * ''Series/LoisAndClark'': Frogs being stolen from a pet shop → A conspiracy to replace the President of the United States with a clone who'd then sign a pardon for ComicBook/LexLuthor. |
| 476 | * An episode of the revival of ''Series/MagnumPI'' sees Magnum's search for a missing cat lead to a murdered FBI agent. |
| 477 | * Happens constantly in ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries''. For example, in "Death on the Vine" a simple case to investigate the origin of some mysterious photographs ends up exposing a TownWithADarkSecret. |
| 478 | * In a few ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episodes: |
| 479 | ** In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion", the murder of a retired college nurse leads Monk to discover a murder plot involving Trudy's freshman roommate. |
| 480 | ** In "Mr. Monk Is On the Run" (both parts), Monk is framed for a shooting by a dirty county sheriff. Once Monk escapes, he finds the shooting tied to a plot to assassinate the governor. |
| 481 | ** In "Mr. Monk Buys a House", the death of a wheelchair-handicapped man [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident who fell down a flight of stairs in his own house]] is tied to money from an unsolved robbery. |
| 482 | ** In "Mr. Monk and the Magician", Monk's upstairs neighbor Kevin is killed by Karl Torini the night he debuts as an amateur magician → discrepancies in Torini's airline receipts that were evidence of Torini's involvement in a drug trafficking ring. |
| 483 | ** In the TieInNovel ''Mr. Monk In Outer Space'', the heart-attack death of a fast-food company CEO that is dressed up as a shooting → exposure of an embezzlement scam. |
| 484 | ** In "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy", the investigation on who killed the paperboy who delivered Monk's paper led him to find out the plan of a girl to play BlackWidow to a multi-million-dollar lottery winner who lived in the same building (and who didn't even knew he ''had'' won, because the plan included keeping him ignorant of this fact). |
| 485 | *** A somewhat unusual case, as the initial crime leads Monk to coincidentally solve two completely unrelated crimes while operating under the assumption the killer was trying to prevent ''him'' from seeing the newspaper. |
| 486 | ** In "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine", the investigation of a drive-by shooting in which Stottlemeyer gets shot in the shoulder turns out to be tied to an upcoming armored car robbery. |
| 487 | ** In "Mr. Monk, Private Eye", a dent car case leads Monk to a murder of a woman caused by the person who dented the car. |
| 488 | ** "Mr. Monk and the Election": attempted assassination on Natalie --> domestic terrorism |
| 489 | * ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': |
| 490 | ** "Enemies Foreign" starts with the team busting an identity thief. One of the identities she stole leads them to a pair of [[BadassIsraeli Mossad agents]] who are in D.C. in advance of Director Eli David--who is being followed by Palestinian terrorists who want him dead. |
| 491 | ** “Kill Screen” starts out with a cop witnessing a pickpocket lifting a purse from a crowd of customers at a hotdog stand. The bag has the cut-off fingertips and teeth of a recently-killed corporal, which gets NCIS involved. The case then spirals to a game developer's plot to wipe out every military computer on the Pentagon’s grid using his new video game and its mainframe to generate enough power to break through the firewalls. |
| 492 | ** "Troll" starts with a typical murdered sailor--and leads to a four-episode battle with international terrorists who create ChildSoldiers via the internet, set off several bomb attacks (one of which kills Ned Dorniget), and almost-fatally shoot Gibbs. |
| 493 | ** One episode starts with the team investigating a chop shop run by navy personnel. One of the stolen cars has a severed head in the trunk. |
| 494 | * ''Series/{{NewBlood}}'' is founded on one of these when the two investigators realise that their murder and fraud investigations are linked to each other and indicative of a larger conspiracy. |
| 495 | * The first episode of ''Series/TheNightOf'' follows, [[TwoLinesNoWaiting in parallel]], the detectives investigating a bloody murder scene and the street cops arresting a reckless driver who refuses to take a breathalyzer. We already know him as the guy who, earlier in the episode, woke up to a damning TheMurderAfter scenario and fled in a panic, but it's tense seeing the two investigations converge. |
| 496 | * Happens a few times in ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}'' |
| 497 | ** "In Plain Sight": While trying to decrypt the computer of an escaped drug kingpin/cop killer, Charlie discovers that he is also concealing pornographic images of his very young daughter on his hard drive. |
| 498 | ** "Black Swan": An apparent innocent bystander at the scene of a drug raid flees from the cops, and the FBI discovers that he's involved in a domestic terrorist plot. |
| 499 | ** An InvokedTrope in "Robin Hood"; a high-tech bank robbery turns out to be just one piece in an intricate scheme to expose the misdeeds of the bank's president. |
| 500 | ** "Assassin": While busting a passport forger, the FBI discovers evidence of a plot to murder the last member of an influential South American political family. |
| 501 | ** "Waste Not": A sinkhole suddenly forms underneath an elementary school playground, killing a teacher and injuring several children. During the investigation into why it happened, it's revealed that a construction company has been dumping toxic waste underneath the playgrounds they've built at several low-income schools. |
| 502 | * Happened many times on ''Series/NYPDBlue''. One notable example is in "Bombs Away", where a Romanian immigrant has a fender-bender with Sipowicz and Simone. The detectives hear a woman yelling and pounding in the man's trunk; he's brought in for questioning, which leads to a search of his apartment and the discovery of [=IEDs=] and a list of wealthy families in New York. He finally reveals to Sipowicz that he's holding a rich family for a million-dollar ransom, having tied them up and attached bombs to them in their home. |
| 503 | * Happens regularly in ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. Attempt to murder one person equals exposure of whatever crime they were trying to use the murder to cover up. This is actually The Machine's job, finding the simple links that would prevent terrorist attacks. The fact that it finds the same connections in more conventional crimes was purely accidental. |
| 504 | * ''Series/{{Psych}}'': "True Grits" revolves around Shawn and Gus trying to prove the innocence of Thane Woodson who was wrongfully imprisoned for a theft he did not commit. They find the real thief and DNA analysis proves Thane's innocence. However, the thief's DNA is revealed to be a familial match to a DNA sample found at the scene of an unsolved murder from 1981. It turns out that the murder was committed by the thief's father who wanted to keep his son's DNA out of the national database to avoid this very outcome. |
| 505 | * In ''Series/TheRookieFeds'' episode "Countdown", the investigation into a missing scientist who spent his time looking for Bigfoot reveals a plan to destroy Los Angeles with two dirty bombs. |
| 506 | * ''Series/TheShadowLine'': The death of a drug baron → A GovernmentConspiracy using drug money to fund police pensions. |
| 507 | * From the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' two-part episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E7Unification1 Unification Part 1]]/[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E8Unification2 Part 2]]": Theft of a Vulcan ship from a scrapyard → Romulan plot to take over the planet Vulcan. |
| 508 | * ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the two-parter "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E20ImprobableCause Improbable Cause]]"/"[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E21TheDieIsCast The Die Is Cast]]", the bombing of Garak's shop → the [[StateSec Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order]] making a preemptive strike on the Dominion. |
| 509 | * Season 3 of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' starts with Admiral (ret.) Picard receiving a DistressCall from Doctor Crusher to save her and her son from bounty hunters. In answering her call, he discovers that the bounty hunters are part of [[RenegadeSplinterFaction a group of Changelings]] who have infiltrated Starfleet to assist the Borg in assimilating Starfleet and destroying TheFederation. |
| 510 | * ''Series/StateOfPlay'' starts off with a murder, an affair and a suicide which are all investigated by the newspaper who find that they are all related to a much larger government conspiracy. |
| 511 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'': |
| 512 | ** In Season 1, a missing boy leads the main characters to a secretive government conspiracy involving psychic children, a mysteriously decaying otherworld, and an EldritchAbomination that wants to devour the world. |
| 513 | ** In Season 2, a bad pumpkin crop that local farmers attribute to sabotage reveals a powerful EldritchAbomination is beginning to cross the threshold into our world. |
| 514 | ** Exaggerated in season 3, where the instigating incident is barely even a crime. Joyce and (reluctantly) Hopper investigating why the refrigerator magnets in Hawkins have stopped working leads to them discovering a secret Soviet experiment into alternate dimensions on American soil. Similarly, Nancy and Jonathan trying to write a story on why rats are suddenly eating fertilizer uncovers an EldritchAbomination building a BodyOfBodies for itself. |
| 515 | * ''Series/SWAT2017'' has the team finding much bigger cases off a run-of-the-mill call. For example, a couple of teens break into a house and the girl fires the owner's rifle at a cop. The team subdues the pair only to find the owner is selling illegal assault weapons and just made an order for a deadly attack. |
| 516 | * ''Series/TeenWolf'': A dead woman is found in the woods → Werewolves exist, so do some other creatures, and there's a [[BuffySpeak war-type-thing]] going on between the werewolves, the other creatures, and the people who hunt them. |
| 517 | * ''Series/TwinPeaks'': The murder of a teenage girl → otherdimensional demonic conspiracy (to confuse the audience). |
| 518 | * ''Series/{{Weeds}}'' subverts the hell out of this early in the third season. The second season CliffHanger ends with Silas arrested for petty vandalism with a trunk full of marijuana but Celia drives away in his car before the cop sees it, and a few episodes later a DEA agent shows up at the Botwins' door while they're bagging product but never gets in the door so he doesn't notice it. |
| 519 | ** Also played straight at the end of the third season: stolen cross → new grow house. |
| 520 | * A bomber in the third season of ''Series/TheWestWing'' is busted when he gets pulled over for a broken taillight. |
| 521 | * ''Series/WeOwnThisCity'': A drug dealer is robbed the night before the police are about to execute a search warrant for his apartment. When leaving the scene, one of the police goes to retrieve a GPS tracker they had placed on the suspect's car, only to find two police issue trackers on the car, the other of which is not being on file as being used for an investigation. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has sent an investigator to look into police corruption in Baltimore, and is at every turn told about officer Hershl, a notorious [[DirtyCop thief with a badge]]. These two lines of inquiry soon lead to the Gun Trace Task Force, a unit with a [[FrameUp suspicious rate of succesfull vehicle searches]], and [[SuspiciousSpending spending habits beyond their paychecks]]. |
| 522 | * ''Series/TheWire'': |
| 523 | ** Season One: the unit intercepts a phonecall about a pickup at the housing projects, and when they stop the driver, he is found to be an assistant of State Senator Clay Davis. The suspicious event, and the speed at which Davis' lawyer comes up with a convinient excuse to why the driver had a large bag of cash in his car leads the unit to start looking into the finances of the Barsdale group. |
| 524 | --->'''Lester:''' You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don't know where the fuck it's gonna take you |
| 525 | ** Season Two: Stevedores' Union leader Frank Sobotka with suspicious amounts of money buys a stained window for a church → bulk smuggling of drugs, prostitutes and goods; multiple ethnic gangs, murders agogo. Hilariously, or depressingly, the guy who tipped the unit off to the church window[[note]]Stanislaus Valchek, Commander of the Southeastern District[[/note]] doesn't give a shit about the vast criminal network they uncovered, he just wants his slobby dockworker nemesis to ''pay big-time'', and he'll gladly fuck his own people over if it will ensure that it happens. |
| 526 | * ''Series/WithoutATrace''. The reason behind the disappearance of the VictimOfTheWeek was almost always far more complicated than indicated in the opening sequence. |
| 527 | %%* Pretty much every MythArc episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'', and several Monster of the Week ones as well. |
| 528 | * Invoked in ''Series/YesMinister''. James Hacker hears of Italian Red Terrorists somehow being in possession of British bomb-making equipment and decides to tell the Prime Minister so there can be an investigation. His Permanent Secretary tells him not to get involved or it could lead to all sorts of things coming out, citing Watergate as an example and saying in politics you shouldn't get involved in anything that doesn't concern you. Hacker is then frightened off from telling the PM by the Chief Whip, who tells him it could be diasterous to some of his Cabinet colleagues along with the PM. |
| 529 | [[/folder]] |
| 530 | |
| 531 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 532 | * ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' supplement ''Masks of Nyarlathotep''. The murder of author Jackson Elias by cultists leads to a worldwide conspiracy to open a Gate and let the forces of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos conquer the Earth. |
| 533 | * ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': In the ''[[Literature/RavnicaCycle Dissension]]'' novel, Agrus Kos is sent to infiltrate the Simic Combine to find out their involvement in a potential Dimir plot...and is surprised and chagrined when guildleader Momir Vig begins {{monologuing}} about his own, completely unrelated plan to TakeOverTheWorld. |
| 534 | * This is the standard structure for ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' Adventure Paths, to justify starting at level 1 (when [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick everything is kobolds and copper pieces, and you get excited over a potion of barkskin]]) and ending at 15-20 (when you can pick fights with legendary monsters and win): adventurers go to Town X at the behest of Patron Y, and whatever happens there starts them on a path to stopping the evil plan of Potentially Setting-Reshaping Threat Z. |
| 535 | ** ''Rise of the Runelords'' begins with a bunch of goblins attacking a town during a local festival, leading to an investigation that reveals that sevent ancient tyrants seek to be resurrected so they can retake their power. |
| 536 | ** ''Legacy of Fire'' begins with a mysterious fire killing a merchant princess's personal astrologer, and the investigation ends with a crazed genie and his minions attempting to steal the power of an EldritchAbomination. |
| 537 | ** ''Kingmaker'' begins with a group of people being sent into an unclaimed land to form a new kingdom, which leads to the reveal of an exiled mad nymph seeking to bottle said unclaimed land in an attempt to regain her old life. |
| 538 | ** ''Iron Gods'' begins with someone sabotaging the purple "flame" that fuels most of the town of Torch's industry and ends with an unhinged AI launching a bid for godhood from within the confines of an ancient crashed spaceship. |
| 539 | ** ''Carrion Crown'' starts with the apparently accidental death of a scholar, with the player characters being old friends attending his funeral, and winds its way through various horror tropes to an attempt to bring back an ancient lich. |
| 540 | * One ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' supplement, about Lone Star Security, mentions how police in the Robbery division often wind up investigating major crimes: ones that'd started out ''looking'' like a simple robbery due to cover-up efforts by the perpetrators. |
| 541 | [[/folder]] |
| 542 | |
| 543 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 544 | * The court case in ''The Broken Jug'' (Der zerbrochne Krug) by Heinrich von Kleist is about - you guessed it - a broken jug. As it turns out, there is a [[ScarpiaUltimatum particularly nasty]] case of blackmail behind it. |
| 545 | * Played with in ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'', where Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, and James Madison's search for dirt on Alexander Hamilton leads them to a supposed tip that he's been engaging in embezzlement of government funds. What they actually uncover is a considerably less criminal enterprise - Hamilton's affair with Maria Reynolds. Their fishing trip might have been an embarrassment for them, except that Hamilton is so paranoid about being accused and so arrogant about his own talent for maneuvering that he decides to publish a pamphlet admitting to the affair, which turns it into a huge scandal that tarnishes his reputation and almost ends his marriage. |
| 546 | [[/folder]] |
| 547 | |
| 548 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 549 | * Happens very often in the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series. |
| 550 | ** In the second case of the first game, trying to solve the murder of your mentor leads to you discovering a massive blackmail chain. It gets better too: the investigation reveals a reference to the "DL-6" incident, which becomes prominent later on. |
| 551 | ** Investigating the murder of a lawyer in the middle of a lake (case 1-4) quickly reveals a connection to the assassination of another lawyer 15 years ago which has been unsolved all this time. Turns out this was just the result of a fifteen-year-long revenge scheme against Miles Edgeworth, ace prosecutor. |
| 552 | ** A police detective was murdered in "Rise from the Ashes" so [[HeKnowsTooMuch he wouldn't leak the truth]] about the assassination of Prosecutor Neil Marshall 2 years ago, the constant extortion of the current Chief Prosecutor, and an evidence forgery to convict a serial killer for Marshall's murder (which he didn't commit). Unfortunately for the mastermind behind this incident, Phoenix exposed everything in court, so in the end it was AllForNothing. |
| 553 | ** The theft of a priceless (in the ''worst'' sense of the word; it's worth nothing) historical treasure in Case 3-2 → a series of blackmails and thefts of 100,000-dollar items and the murder of a security company's CEO. |
| 554 | ** The poisoning of a genius programmer in a restaurant → a million-dollar debt with the mafia's don (not on behalf of the programmer, but his killer) and the infection of the entire precinct's computer network with a virus the programmer created. |
| 555 | ** In the last case of the third game, the murder of a children's book author is ultimately tied into a gigantic revenge scheme. |
| 556 | ** In ''Investigations'', the seemingly disconnected murders of a police officer, a plane flight passenger, a prosecutor and a defendant over the course of a few days → All of them were involved in an international smuggling ring. One that had a politician/ambassador of a country on the edge of war as the ringleader, incidentally. |
| 557 | ** ''Every'' case in the fourth game ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' has this: |
| 558 | *** The murder of an unknown guy in a restaurant, which spans the entire game - The victim is actually the protagonist's step-father and the defendant's old client, and the real murderer's motive is tied to the events of seven years ago. |
| 559 | *** A non-fatal hit-and-run, a panty-snatching and the theft of a noodle stand led to a murder where the defendant is the son of the city's biggest crime boss, who's unaware that he's on the verge of death thanks to a turf war that caused him to get shot in the heart. |
| 560 | *** The murder of a singer's manager during a concert is pretty big, but when that manager turns out to be an Undercover Interpol Agent who was killed by a smuggler, who was funneling a controlled substance that is on the top of Interpol's list of illicit contraband into the country, it gets even bigger. |
| 561 | *** An isolated painter is found dead in his home. Oh, and he happens to have drawings depicting all the cases that the titular character has worked on up to that point. And as if that wasn't enough, he turns out to be a forger who was apparently responsible for making the evidence that got Phoenix disbarred seven years ago. And to top it all off, it turns out that his murder was actually ''supposed to happen'' seven years ago during those events, but the "time bomb" that the killer set for him got delayed thanks to some luck, that happens to tie into Apollo's sister's family being a group of famous magicians... Quite a complex web for a case that starts out as your run-of-the-mill murder. [[LampshadeHanging Even Phoenix himself notes this throughout the case.]] |
| 562 | ** The bombing of Courtroom No. 4 in ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dual Destinies]]'' → an international spy destroying evidence that would reveal his identity ''and'' his guilt in a seven-year-old murder, ''and'' the murder and impersonation of a police detective, ''and'' two consecutive terrorist attacks on the Space Center. |
| 563 | ** The theft of Khura'in's national treasure and the murder of the guard looking after it in ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice Spirit of Justice]]'' → A coup d'état plotted by the very Justice Minister of the kingdom and a popular revolution involving basically every known character up to Case 5. The plot is so big, its influence encompasses Japanifornia, thousands of miles away. But wait, there's more: in investigating the coup d'état, the truth about the queen's assassination 23 years ago comes to light, which further shakes the kingdom as ''the current queen'' was responsible for that arson and the law that killed off all lawyers in the land. |
| 564 | ** In Case 3 of ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney 2: Resolve'', a death during a public experiment at London's Great Exhibition uncovers a conspiracy within the British government that faked the execution of a notorious SerialKiller a decade prior. Scotland Yard's chief coroner took part in the murder plot due to being blackmailed about her false autopsy report of the convict. |
| 565 | * Most of the campaigns in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'' have this as a plot: |
| 566 | ** ''Blood'': Attack on a Maltese fortress → the uncovering of an AncientConspiracy and a fountain whose water grants eternal life, whose main leader is [[TreacherousAdvisor the main character's mentor figure]]. |
| 567 | ** ''Ice'': Attack on an English colony by a Cherokee tribe → the same AncientConspiracy, now led by a war-minded noble, trying to conquer the New World. |
| 568 | ** ''Steel'': Attack on an American company's railroad → [[RuleOfThree the same]] AncientConspiracy, now led by a french skin trader, with a plot to TakeOverTheWorld. |
| 569 | ** ''Fire'': Attack on a pair of Iroquois/Haudenosaunee settlements → A Mercenary group helping English royal forces to re-colonize the United States. |
| 570 | ** ''Shadows'': Attack on an American company's railroad → A corrupt Sheriff wanting to cleanse the lands of natives in order to claim their gold for himself. |
| 571 | ** ''China'': Attacks on the Imperial Fleet on China and India → the accidental discovery of the Americas and the prince of said Dynasty being behind all of the events of the campaign. |
| 572 | * ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology:'' In the original game's campaign, a pillage caused by a bandit group → A continent-spanning plot to subvert the gods and bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. |
| 573 | * ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': Ann learns about her brother's disappearance when thugs from the Factio Pugni show up looking for him → then she finds out Ryan picked up a clue on the elusive cure-all, [[{{Panacea}} N540]] → which leads Ann to discovering it was a ploy devised by C to capture her in order to retrieve an ArtifactOfDoom that could potentially destroy the world. |
| 574 | * ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey:'' In the ''Fate of Atlantis'' DLC, people getting kidnapped → two Isu turning innocent humans into bioweapons to take over Atlantis. |
| 575 | * ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': An Iron shortage due to bandit attacks → plot to spark a war between Baldur's Gate and Amn. Attempted assassination of some nobody orphan → resurrection/replacement of a dead god. |
| 576 | * ''Franchise/BlazBlue'': Attempt to destroy an underground magic device → Encounter with the hero's [[BigBad extremely dangerous]] ArchEnemy → The destruction and re-creation of all existence. |
| 577 | * ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'': One that spans across the entire franchise: four {{Bounty Hunter}}s going to a DeathWorld in order to acquire riches and loot → the reveal of an ancient alien race, its Phlebotinum and its legend, alongside an universal threat → a low-level corporative code monkey becoming the universe's biggest threat because of his hatred of bandits → an intergalactic war threatening to [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX take the universe down with it]] while the {{Mega Corp}}s are battling one another. |
| 578 | * ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': SaveThePrincess → Prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. |
| 579 | * Possibly the case in ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert''. At the beginning of the story, the crime that Mortelli investigated is the theft of the toaster at the protagonist's diner. It isn’t clear how Mortelli gets dragged into investigating the protagonist for defrauding Lainie’s family lawyer, but he suspects a connection between the two investigations. |
| 580 | * ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'': |
| 581 | ** Chuck Greene, contestant of [[ShowWithinAShow Terror Is Reality]] is filmed setting off a bomb that releases [[ZombieApocalypse the zombies meant to be killed for entertainment onto the people of Fortune City, Nevada]] → Plot to [[{{Frameup}} frame him]] so that, Tyrone "TK" King, the controversial host of Terror Is Reality, can rob the casinos in the confusion → TheReveal is that TK was paid to frame Chuck for releasing the zombies as a way for [[MegaCorp Phenotrans]] to harvest more of the pheromone needed to keep selling Zombrex, their anti-zombification medicine, and that Phenotrans was behind the outbreak in Las Vegas that killed Chuck's wife, and is revealed to be planning more [[ZombieApocalypse zombie outbreaks]] to keep producing Zombrex. |
| 582 | ** In ''[[VideoGame/DeadRising2OffTheRecord Off the Record]]'', After his bout in Terror is Reality, Frank West photographs T.K. giving a BriefcaseFullOfMoney to a [[ZombieAdvocate C.U.R.E. activist]] as well as a bomb. Said activist is then seen setting off the bomb, and [[ZombieApocalypse freeing a zombie horde on Fortune City.]] → Plot to cast C.U.R.E. as BombThrowingAnarchists while T.K. robs the cash from the casinos in the confusion → TheReveal that T.K. was bribed to set up the activist so he could release the zombies, as a way for [[MegaCorp Phenotrans]] to harvest queens from zombies to extract the pheromone needed for Zombrex, and the fact that Phenotrans has plans to keep creating more [[ZombieApocalypse outbreaks]] as a way to [[WithholdingTheCure keep manufacturing Zombrex.]] |
| 583 | * ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'': |
| 584 | ** Sneak a free Qunari mage out of Kirkwall → Halt a Chantry plot to spark open conflict between humans and Qunari. |
| 585 | ** Humorously played with in the Bone Pit mine, going from an invasion of small dragons to a Coterie plot to steal shipments to a [[OurDragonsAreDifferent High Dragon]] taking over. One of the miners called it, too. |
| 586 | * ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': |
| 587 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'': Exorcise a walking spirit and deliver a letter → Shape the future of TheEmpire. |
| 588 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'': Investigate a pair of cults becoming more active in the eponymous province → stop a deranged PhysicalGod from taking over the world. |
| 589 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'': |
| 590 | *** The sidequest "Laid to Rest". Investigate a suspicious house fire that killed a woman and a child → Break up a plot by [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] to take over the town and enslave its inhabitants. |
| 591 | *** The ThievesGuild questline. Investigate why someone is trying to drive a patron of the Guild out of business → uncover the truth behind the death of the previous Guild Master and the treachery of the current one against both your guild and their patron deity, along with reclaiming an artifact with reality-warping powers. |
| 592 | * ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'': Investigate your grandfather's violent murder → Stop a two-thousand-year-old [[OurLichesAreDifferent "liche"]] from summoning a world-destroying EldritchAbomination. |
| 593 | * ''VideoGame/FaithTheUnholyTrinity'': Exorcise a teenage girl → Prevent a Satanic cult from unleashing [[{{Satan}} the UNSPEAKABLE]] to cause HellOnEarth. |
| 594 | * ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': |
| 595 | ** Find the man that shot you and stole the package you were supposed to deliver, get said package back, and finish the delivery → decide which of the factions vying for control of New Vegas and the rest of the Mojave Wasteland emerges triumphant, or [[ICanRuleAlone make your own power play and take over for yourself]]. |
| 596 | ** Prostitutes being abused → Omertas plotting to attack the Strip. |
| 597 | ** Sabotage of an NCR base → a terrorist attack on the monorail. |
| 598 | ** False radio reports → high treason. |
| 599 | * ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'': A minor noble from Lycia goes missing, and another minor noble plots rebellion → A mad sorcerer was using those nobles to try to summon dragons to destroy the world. |
| 600 | * ''VideoGame/ForTheKing'': The Lost Civilization DLC has a plot involving a {{Mayincatec}} civilization attempting to end the world from their secret jungle temple, but it starts with the protagonists investigating a case of poultry smuggling. |
| 601 | * ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight'': |
| 602 | ** ''Sins of the Fathers'': Investigate seven ritualistic murders → Stop an ancient cult that has taken over New Orleans and cursed your family for centuries. |
| 603 | ** ''The Beast Within'': Investigate the possible presence of a werewolf killing people in Munich → Become entangled with the much older, ManipulativeBastard werewolf who turned the aforementioned werewolf in the first place, and had previously inflicted the same curse on UsefulNotes/LudwigIIOfBavaria → Discover a secret unpublished opera created by Ludwig and Music/RichardWagner whose music can expose werewolves by forcing them to transform prematurely. |
| 604 | ** ''Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned'': |
| 605 | *** Get hired to stand guard over the youngest child of a RoyalBlood line whose family have been known to suffer sporadic fits of anemia after waking up with a [[VampireHickey pair of puncture marks on their neck]] → Witness the child's kidnapping by a shadowy figure and pursue said figure to a remote country town → Uncover an AncientConspiracy of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampiric]] cultists who want to sacrifice the infant, who is descended from UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, in order to become {{Physical God}}s and TakeOverTheWorld. |
| 606 | *** A different angle from the same: Investigate a local legend about a treasure buried in the area → Realize that [[YouALLShareMyStory every single person staying at the local inn]] is trying to find the treasure, including a sleazy treasure hunter, a couple of [[ImpoverishedPatrician economically humbled aristocrats]], an undercover CIA agent, an undercover French Intelligence agent, [[OverlyLongGag an undercover agent from the Vatican]], and the WanderingJew himself → Eventually discover that the legend points to an ancient underground temple, and the treasure is the body of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, who was entombed there. |
| 607 | * ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'': [[WhodunnitToMe The protagonist wanting to find out who murdered him]] → foreign government trying to steal a meteorite and gain its mysterious powers. Worsened by a certain individual with said powers who wants to take his personal vendetta on those who ruined his life ten years ago by killing them or [[FrameUp framing them for murder]]. Said individual also manipulated two people into divulging national secrets and seizing a police station. |
| 608 | * ''VideoGame/{{Heartbeat}}'': Investigating a string of incidents in which Mogwai are being assaulted and having their cores stolen by an abnormally powerful wisp → stopping a [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen mad Mogwai queen]] from annihilating humanity. |
| 609 | * ''VideoGame/KirbySqueakSquad'': [[LostFoodGrievance Kirby's cake being stolen]] → a plot by [[GoldfishPoopGang the Squeaks]] to attain [[MacGuffin a chest that is said to grant ultimate power]]-- which, unbeknownst to anyone ([[PoorCommunicationKills besides Meta Knight]]), contains an ancient EldritchAbomination. |
| 610 | * True to its genre, ''VideoGame/LANoire'' has some: |
| 611 | ** Apparent drunk driving crash → statutory rape → blackmail → attempted murder → giant shoot-out with mobsters on the set of ''Film/{{Intolerance}}''. |
| 612 | ** Series of house fires → a [[RailroadPlot giant real estate scheme]]. |
| 613 | * ''[[VideoGame/TrailsSeries The Legend of Heroes - Trails]]'': |
| 614 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'': Sky pirates stealing a crystal → the same pirates hijacking an airliner → a MayorPain and his secretary burning down an orphanage in a real estate scheme → a coup by the country's intelligence division, who were manipulating the sky pirates and the mayor → the head of the intelligence division attempting to unseal an ancient superweapon → a branch of an AncientConspiracy having brainwashed ''all'' aforementioned parties to carry out step one of their EvilPlan. |
| 615 | ** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZero'': Breaking up a fight between two delinquent gangs → TheMafia preparing for a MobWar with [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Heiyue]] by training war hounds → an assassination attempt on the mayor → an AuctionOfEvil run by TheMafia endorsed by the city's politicians and given a blind eye by the police → rescuing a human child from the auction → TheRemnant of a devil-worshipping, child-abusing cult using mind-altering drugs to control TheMafia and the army and turn the rescued child into their god. |
| 616 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 617 | ** In the first game, an unprovoked attack on a human colony → The destruction of all sentient life by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. |
| 618 | ** The sequel gives us: Human colonies disappearing → Creation of an EldritchAbomination. |
| 619 | ** The ''Arrival'' DLC has: Admiral Hackett's friend Dr. Kenson has been kidnapped by Batarians → the Reapers will arrive and begin the galactic extermination in 2 days. |
| 620 | ** The ''Leviathan'' DLC features a scientist's assistant killing his boss with no apparent motive in a case that is indistinguishable from indoctrination except that he now seems normal but has amnesia → the Leviathan, who created the Reapers, are now trying to cover their tracks during the Reaper invasion. |
| 621 | * ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'': |
| 622 | ** ''VideoGame/MaxPayne1'': Murder of Alex Balder → Massive government conspiracy involving a failed attempt to create a SuperSerum for the military which Max's family was killed to protect. |
| 623 | ** ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2'': Investigating a break-in at a workshop suspected of housing an illegal gun shop → a massive crime war between TheMafia and a secret society and TheMafiya, the uncovering of a paramilitary group complicit in the cover-ups of hundreds of murders, the death of a corrupt NYPD Detective in love with the Russian mob boss and nearly all parties involved dying, with Max arrested for murder at the end. |
| 624 | ** ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3'': Kidnap attempt on Rodrigo Branco + kidnap of his wife Fabiana → cooperation between illegal paramilitaries and {{Dirty Cop}}s → [[OrganTheft organ harvesting of the poor,]] staged by a SleazyPolitician to get himself elected on an anti-crime ticket, with those cops being his private army. |
| 625 | * ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'': In each game, Lan and Mega Man's first battle with a VillainOfTheWeek leads to the revelation that the incident caused was part of a larger plan conducted by the criminal organization responsible with their goal to TakeOverTheWorld. |
| 626 | * ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2: Storm of Zehir'': Sabotage of a trade ship → yuan-ti plot to take over the world. |
| 627 | * ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysofEurope'' Japan path: Tokyo Metropolitan Police investigate embezzlement of state funds by the Minezaka trading company → investigation of a murder at a dockyard has a corpse blown up with a booby-trapped hand grenade → police find out how a military hand grenade was somehow found its way outside of the IJA → eventual realization that all parts of the government, IJA and IJN included were aware of the embezzlement and allowed it, resulting in a massive corruption scandal called the Yasuda Crisis |
| 628 | * Cyrus' storyline in ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': a collection of rare books has been stolen and sold to pay off a gambling researcher's debt → excerpts from a still-missing book are in the hands of a crazy guy trying to copy the evil research within → the headmaster of the academy and his assistant took the original book to learn how to gain ultimate power through dark magic and human sacrifice → the revival of a dark god by the assistant's main benefactor. |
| 629 | * ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'': The pontiff of a local church has been murdered → these murders were performed by a man operating on behalf of the Moonshade Order → the Moonshade Order massacred the Kal clan in the recent past → the last survivor of the Kal Clan has taken control of the Sanctum Knights and is using them to try and eradicate the Order of the Sacred Flame because she blames them for her clan's destruction. This investigation ends, but sparks another. The Church was in possession of an evil artifact called the Darkblood Bow → the Moonshade Order has absconded with the bow and other Darkblood artifacts, and has smothered the Sacred Flames around the world, shrouding it in eternal darkness so that they may bring about the return of the dark god Vide the Wicked. In a strange irony, Temenos also discovers that the leader of the Sanctum Knights had nothing to do with the pontiff's murder. The pontiff was murdered by the leader of the Moonshade Order because the pontiff had learned just what the leader was up to and was trying to warn Temenos about them. So Temenos went on an entirely different investigation, the loose ends of which somehow led him right back around to the true culprits of the first one. |
| 630 | * ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'': Princess Peach contacts Mario about a treasure map but gets kidnapped by X-Nauts → sinister plot to revive an ancient EldritchAbomination [[SealedEvilInACan sealed inside a crypt]] and [[DemonicPossession possess the princess]], and said EldritchAbomination will then throw the Mushroom World into chaos. |
| 631 | * In the second ''VisualNovel/{{Paramedium}}'' game, the protagonists are sent to investigate reports of a ghost being a hazard to traffic. It turns out that the ghost was one of a group of kidnapped school children, and haunts the road because she was hit by a truck while trying to escape and fetch help. Following her reveals the kidnapper, who had otherwise managed to escape justice for twenty or thirty years. |
| 632 | * ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'': |
| 633 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona3'' has your team investigating the mystery of the Dark Hour and why your school turns into a freaky tower every night. You end up [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt saving the world]] |
| 634 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona4'' has you and your team exploring the Midnight Channel and stopping people from being killed by facing their [[EnemyWithout enemies without]]. You end up uncovering a KillerCop and an AssimilationPlot by the goddess Izanami to turn everybody into Shadows and form one, collective conscience. |
| 635 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' has you and your gang of vigilantes using the Metaverse to perform HeelFaceBrainwashing on untouchable or hidden criminals. Then you discover a conspiracy that's also using the Metaverse to pull off assassinations or engineer disasters in order to install their leader as Prime Minister, and that the events of the game were started by the KnightTemplar god Yaldabaoth in order to give itself the moral justification to enslave mankind. |
| 636 | * ''[[VideoGame/{{Pico}} Pico's School]]'': Survive [[AxesAtSchool a school shooting]] → Stop an AlienInvasion. |
| 637 | * Happens quite a bit with the villain teams in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''. For example: |
| 638 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'': Fossil theft in Mt. Moon → A plot by Team Rocket to TakeOverTheWorld and enslave all Pokémon. |
| 639 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'': Slowpoke losing their tails in Azalea Town → An attempt to restore Team Rocket to its former glory by a few senior operatives trying to get the former Boss Rocket's attention. |
| 640 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'': Burglars targeting Devon Corporation → An eco-terrorist plot to either expand humanity's grip on the Earth or return what humans stole to Pokémon (depending on the version), involving a very powerful Legendary. |
| 641 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'': Goons attempting to strongarm Professor Rowan and steal from an energy company → An attempt to restart the world with all humans as {{Empty Shell}}s. |
| 642 | * In ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest3TheKindred'', the endgame involves the investigation of a house linked to a series of murders. When it turns out that the place is fortified, the player must go back to the courthouse and get authorization to use the departmental battering ram, which uncovers a cocaine manufacturing ring. |
| 643 | * ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'': |
| 644 | ** The entireity of the series and its mess of a biological war can be traced back to [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil the first game]] and [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil0 its prequel]] - an investigation of the murder of ten people, [[ImAHumanitarian seemingly eaten]], allows the massive conspiracy behind Umbrella and its viruses to come to light. |
| 645 | ** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', The attempted arrest of an international arms dealer selling a highly dangerous biological weapon → a plot by the series' BigBad to conquer the world by spreading the biological weapon everywhere. |
| 646 | * ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheDragon'': Mayor's daughter takes a killer drug, Mayor hires an ex-cop turned private eye to find the dealer → Foiling a plot by a Chinese mafia turned apocalypse cult to pollute Los Angeles' water with said killer drug. |
| 647 | * ''VideoGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' for the Platform/SuperNES has a WhodunnitToMe that reveals a major conspiracy to take control of the entire Internet. |
| 648 | * ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns'' Dead Man's Switch campaign: Investigating the murder of your old runner buddy Sam Watts → victim of an organized organ-harvesting plot → mastermind is also part a plan to create an Insect Spirit hive in Seattle and kill its entire population. Now, granted, homicide is normally a not a minor crime, but take our word for it, in this context, the death of the town drunk is small fry. |
| 649 | ** ''Dragonfall'' starts with a simple burglary gone awry, which leads to the resurfacing of a man and a dragon who were thought dead for decades, the discovery of a rogue AI, the destruction of a non-insignificant portion of Berlin and a plot to kill off all dragons and cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. |
| 650 | ** ''Hong Kong'' starts with an awkward family reunion that gets derailed by the main character's foster father being kidnapped and a firefight with corrupt Hong Kong police officers. Investigations into the events later reveal that the foster father was in fact the son of a CorruptCorporateExecutive responsible for making a city projects district a residential den for {{Eldritch Abomination}}s by sapping [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic Chi]] to fuel the executive's ill-gotten fortunes. |
| 651 | * ''VideoGame/{{SiN}}'': The bank robbery led by Tony Mancini at the beginning of the game eventually leads [=HardCorps=] to discover that Mancini has ties with [[MegaCorp SinTEK]]'s head honcho Elexis Sinclaire and eventually her plans to TakeOverTheWorld as Mother Nature, kickstarting the rest of the plot. |
| 652 | * In ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'', the plot starts with the kids trying to find a missing cat with a $100 finders fee. This leads them to uncover a criminal conspiracy where cats are being kidnapped as part of a drug epidemic, being targeted by ninja assassins and ultimately Cartman's plot to take over the city. |
| 653 | * The standard plot of ''VideoGame/TexMurphy'' games. Tex gets a small, simple gig (find my missing friend) and it turns into a save the world scenario. |
| 654 | * ''VideoGame/{{Spellstone}}'': Frog mercenary tries to kill a dragon → plans for a full-scale invasion of [[FluffyCloudHeaven Skyhaven]] → the reopening of the Void itself, an elaborate operation involving {{Magitek}} smuggling, the destruction of Duskwillow, and multiple attempts on the player's life. Oh, and the invasion was meant as a ''distraction'', so the real BigBad could prepare this in secret. |
| 655 | * ''VideoGame/{{Tenchu}} 2'': Kidnapping of peasants --> Renegade ninja have built a warship to bring down the samurai government. |
| 656 | * A common plot in games in the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': |
| 657 | ** ''VideoGame/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight'': BadMoonRising → alien conspiracy from the antiquity. |
| 658 | ** ''VideoGame/TouhouChireidenSubterraneanAnimism'': Strange creatures from BeneathTheEarth → nuclear conspiracy going out of hand. |
| 659 | ** {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/TouhouSeirensenUndefinedFantasticObject'': cultists trying to awaken Pandemonium monstrosity → decent people wanting their saintly leader back. |
| 660 | ** {{Inverted|Trope}} again in ''VideoGame/TouhouShinkirouHopelessMasquerade'': people mysteriously losing hope → innocent newborn youkai trying to regain control of her emotions. |
| 661 | ** ''VideoGame/TouhouShinpirokuUrbanLegendInLimbo'' and ''VideoGame/TouhouKanjudenLegacyOfLunaticKingdom'': UrbanLegends suddenly start to become real → Invasion by the {{Lunarians}}, forced about as a result of a resentful divine spirit laying siege to their homeland. |
| 662 | ** ''VideoGame/TouhouGouyokuIbunSunkenFossilWorld'': Mysterious oil spillage happening around Gensokyo → crime boss from Hell trying to become strong enough to take over both Hell and Gensokyo. Notably, the latter had nothing to do with the former incident, and it was all set up to raise awareness of the latter. |
| 663 | * ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' series: |
| 664 | ** One that spans the entire series and acts as a {{Zig Zagg|edTrope}}ing of the trope: a PrisonShip gets attracted to an alien planet overran by a ProudWarriorRace → an intergalactic war that brings humanity to its near-extinction → the creation of a government-backed BloodSport in order to contain the masses. |
| 665 | ** ''VideoGame/UnrealTournamentIII'': Attack on a mining colony by an alien force → planet-scale invasion from another MegaCorp-backed alien faction → the MegaCorp that rescued TheProtagonist and his friends/family from the aforementioned mining colony onslaught was behind all of the events of the game, ''including said mining colony invasion''. |
| 666 | * ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} 3'': |
| 667 | ** Reign of Chaos Human campaign: Death cult spreads plague --> Arthas becomes a FallenHero to conquer Lordaeron. |
| 668 | ** The Frozen Throne's bonus campaign: Disruption of thunder lizard habitat --> [[RenegadeSplinterFaction Renegade humans]] trying to start another war with the Horde. |
| 669 | * ''VideoGame/YIIKAPostModernRPG'': Investigate [[RippedFromTheHeadlines the disappearance of a woman in an elevator]]. → Stop a conspiracy meant to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. |
| 670 | [[/folder]] |
| 671 | |
| 672 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 673 | * ''WebAnimation/MetaRunner'': Sudden disappearance of a [=TASCorp=] Meta Runner → Plot by insane MadScientist to trap every Meta Runner in the world inside his digital simulation. |
| 674 | * ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': In the pilot episode, Ruby foils a local criminal's attempt to rob a Dust shop. When Dust robberies keep happening, and seem to also involve the terrorist White Fang organisation, Team RWBY begins a vigilante investigation that eventually drags them and their friends into a vast, global conspiracy that has spent millennia waging a SecretWar to decide the fate of humanity which eventually ends up resulting in the destruction of one of the four remaining Kingdoms of Humanity. |
| 675 | [[/folder]] |
| 676 | |
| 677 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 678 | * In ''Webcomic/ForestHill'' a school bully repeatedly running away from home, and what at first seems to be an unrelated incident of a 5-year-old girl sexually molesting a boy → the school bully is being prostituted by his father to other pedophiles and the girl is the daughter of one of his clients, who has been forcing the two of them to have sex. |
| 679 | * ''Webcomic/TheLettersOfTheDevil'' is started by Cedric's investigation into Rita Carey's fraudulent business practices, and we discover a plethora of other, more heinous crimes as his investigation progresses. |
| 680 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': [=Murder/robbery=] of Eugene Greenhilt's mentor → Multiverse-spanning plot to gain control of an EldritchAbomination that could destroy the world and kill the gods. |
| 681 | [[/folder]] |
| 682 | |
| 683 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 684 | * ''Literature/CanYouSpareAQuarter'': It turns out that Jamie's parents are part of a much larger group of people who abuse children. And the investigation in the case of Jamie leads to the arrest of a number of people in high positions. |
| 685 | * ''Literature/TheSalvationWar: Pantheocide'': Discovery of illegal human items in Heaven → multiple conspiracies to bring down Yahweh. |
| 686 | * The creepypasta ''Teacher Wanted, Must Love Kids'' has one hell of an example: Male teacher is fired for allegedly groping female student. → Female teacher framed him to cover up the fact that she's an EldritchAbomination doing ''[[MindRape much worse]]'' things with the male students. |
| 687 | [[/folder]] |
| 688 | |
| 689 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 690 | * ''WebVideo/TheCartoonMan'' trilogy: Missing persons case. → A plot by said missing person to enslave the world. |
| 691 | [[/folder]] |
| 692 | |
| 693 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 694 | * ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Parodied, and played straight. Steve does a research project on peanut butter and discovers a secret conspiracy dating back to the days of UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln. The parody occurs earlier in the episode in the form of a NoodleIncident where Snot claims that he gave up sleuthing after "the case of a missing bike horn turned into a double rape homicide". |
| 695 | * ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': Pursuit of a crew of rogue Predacons that ends in a crash landing on an unknown planet -> an attempt from said rogue crew to RetGone the Autobots out of existence. |
| 696 | * ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'''s 1st two-part episode has alien weapon smugglers on Earth. Magister Labrid was correct saying "That's just the tip of the iceberg", as it's discovered later on that said smugglers were gathering enough cash in the black market to fund their Galactic scale ApocalypseHow plan. |
| 697 | * A common plot in ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'': |
| 698 | ** "Catteries Not Included": Finding a missing kitten → foiling a plot by a mad scientist to devastate the city with lightning. |
| 699 | ** "Song of the Night 'n Dale": Reuniting a nightingale with a Chinese ruler → foiling a plot by said ruler's sister to take over the throne. |
| 700 | ** "Normie's Science Project": Helping a kid find his lost science project → foiling a plot by the same mad scientist wanting to level the city...again. |
| 701 | ** "A Creep In The Deep": An attack on a fish truck → stopping a submarine full of seas creatures from flooding the city. |
| 702 | ** Even their first mission in "To The Rescue" had a case of a stolen ruby turn out to be part of a scheme to rob the world gold depository. |
| 703 | ** "A Pie In The Sky" even has Chip lampshading the idea: he doesn't want to help a bird who's lost her flock migrate to Capistrano because the case is "too small", only for it to turn into a case of a woman using a giant magnet to screw up birds' sense of direction in order to capture them and bake them into pies, which ends up bringing down an entire airplane in the end. |
| 704 | * Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodeMonkeys'', when both [[TheStoner Dave]] [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike and the United Nations]] believe that: the theft of the new Impalavision game console from the US, along with two video-game developers → create a computer-powered superweapon capable of launching nukes at the US. The ''actual'' plot is much smaller, if not weirder: steal consoles and kidnap developers → restore Khakistan's coffers by selling the consoles back to Americans at a discount to make tons of cash (the programmers were needed to make games, as apparently the Impalavision's launch titles weren't great). |
| 705 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' begins with Elisa investigating the relatively minor crimes of property damage and theft, and this investigation exposes her to the major plot from the very beginning. |
| 706 | * ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' has this happen quite a few times. The biggest example is from ''WesternAnimation/KimPossibleMovieSoTheDrama'' where the attempted kidnapping of a toy magnate was merely the first step in Drakken's most ambitious TakeOverTheWorld plot yet. In one episode this trope is also implied when it is mentioned that Kim once brought an end to an interstate police chase that was set off by a driver having a broken brake light, [[NoodleIncident but no further details are given]]. |
| 707 | * Happens in several episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 708 | ** "Bart the Fink": Bart not getting a check signed by Krusty the Clown himself → Krusty is arrested for tax fraud ([[ExaggeratedTrope all in less than 5 minutes]]!). |
| 709 | ** "24 Minutes": Bullies steal expired yogurt from the Kwik-E-Mart → Plot to unleash a stink bomb on the school's bake sale. |
| 710 | ** "Mother Simpson": Homer fakes his death to get out cleaning a highway for work → Homer's mother is alive (Grandpa lied to Homer and said his mother died) and on the run from the cops for destroying germ weapons. |
| 711 | ** "Mona Leaves-a": Homer fulfills his late mother's final wishes → Uncovering Mr. Burns' plan to send a rocket full of radioactive waste to the Amazon rainforest. |
| 712 | * While WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants is picking up trash in the Krusty Krab parking lot, he calls the police on someone he sees littering. It turns out the guy was actually a dangerous criminal known as the "Tattletale Strangler", who vows to kill [=SpongeBob=] in revenge for turning him in. |
| 713 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': |
| 714 | ** Outpost scientist is turned to stone → plot by another outpost scientist and planetary resident to make money by stealing Starfleet information and selling it on the black market. |
| 715 | ** To an extent, Rutherford's entire story arc through the first three seasons: engineering ensign creates AxCrazy [[AIIsACrapshoot AI helper]] with unstable coding → said ensign's cybernetic implant begins to malfunction and causes repressed memories and old personality to resurface → revelation of plot by InsaneAdmiral to make a name for himself by creating automated Starfleet ships...which then [[LaserGuidedKarma kill him after he attempts to cover it up]] and rampage until the entire fleet of ships they were supposed to replace destroy them. |
| 716 | * 1973-74 ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' episode "The Planet Splitter". The theft of diamonds weighing 100+ carats → A plot to split Cygnus Uno, a planet in another solar system. |
| 717 | * ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': The first outing (unofficial, at that) of the Team is to investigate a fire at Cadmus Labs. The fire allows them to uncover a vast secret project to create genetically engineered soldiers... including Superboy. It's also the first glimpse into the operations of the Light, who are secretly responsible for every villainous act in the series. |
| 718 | [[/folder]] |
| 719 | |
| 720 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 721 | * A foiled "third-rate" burglary at the Watergate complex → the discovery of suspiciously diverted funds and a massive conspiracy to manipulate the US election that went right up to the President UsefulNotes/RichardNixon. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal Watergate scandal]], aside from [[{{Scandalgate}} adding a new suffix]] to the English language, is the most famous example of this trope in a real-world context, even being the former page image.\ |
| 722 | Even the burglary itself was tipped off by [[SpottingTheThread a tiny clue]]: Security guard Frank Wills found the lock on a stairwell door taped open, but thinking it had been left by maintenance workers, he removed the tape. When he came back to find the lock taped open again, he called the police and made a more thorough search, catching the burglars in the act. |
| 723 | ** On a related note, Nixon accomplice and former CIA officer E. Howard Hunt told one of the burglars to throw a brief tip he owed his country club in the mail chute. When the burglars were arrested that night, the check was discovered and Hunt immediately faced indictment, while dragging the White House into the case. Furthermore, Hunt's actions made it much easier for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to make the link to the White House, resulting in Nixon's resignation. It's likely that Nixon's involvement would never have been discovered if the burglar did not have his tip. |
| 724 | * ''The Cuckoo's Egg'' tells of how astrophysicist Clifford Stoll was asked to resolve a 75¢ discrepancy in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory computer usage accounts, and ended up uncovering a German computer hacker selling secrets to the KGB. |
| 725 | * The Los Angeles Police Department '''Rampart Scandal''' in the late 1990s, which was the inspiration for the movie ''Film/TrainingDay'' and the TV series ''Series/TheShield'': |
| 726 | ** It started on March 18, 1997, when Rampart CRASH[[note]]Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, the Rampart Division's anti-gang unit[[/note]] officer Kevin Gaines was shot dead in self-defense by undercover LAPD officer Frank Lyga. The resulting investigation revealed that Gaines not only had a history of road rage but lived a lifestyle far beyond his annual LAPD salary and was associated with Creator/DeathRowRecords CEO Suge Knight, and it came out that Death Row had gang ties with the Bloods and hired off-duty LAPD officers as security guards. |
| 727 | ** The investigation into Gaines also led to suspicions that he and other officers were involved in the fatal drive-by shooting of Music/{{The Notorious BIG}}. |
| 728 | ** In March of 1998, eight pounds of cocaine worth $800,000 was stolen from an evidence room. Rampart CRASH officer Rafael Pérez was arrested for the theft, suspected to be an attempt at framing Frank Lyga in retaliation for Gaines's death; the cocaine stash was evidence in a prior arrest made by Lyga. Pérez was also suspected of knowing about the illegal activities of fellow CRASH officer David Mack, who'd robbed a bank his assistant manager girlfriend worked at in November 1997. When Pérez got a mistrial, he took a plea bargain and pled guilty to cocaine theft in exchange for providing prosecutors information about two "bad" shootings and three other Rampart CRASH officers engaged in illegal activity. Ultimately, over 4,000 pages of sworn testimony came out of Pérez, which resulted in more than 70 officers being implicated in serious misconduct. Worse, the scandal led to the Police Chief, District Attorney, and Mayor of Los Angeles all eventually being not re-appointed or re-elected (after allegations arose that the chief had tried to censor the lead investigators in the Rampart case, and one of these detectives resigned as a form of protest). Over 100 criminal convictions were also overturned as a result. |
| 729 | * Some of the most infamous murderers in history have been caught thanks to them tripping up over traffic violations: |
| 730 | ** Timothy [=McVeigh=] was arrested for illegal firearm possession and driving without a license plate, and nearly made bail before he was finally connected to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing Oklahoma City bombing]]. |
| 731 | ** David Berkowitz, the 'Son of Sam' serial killer, was tracked down because his getaway car was ticketed for illegal parking at the scene of one of his murders. |
| 732 | ** Ted Bundy's initial capture was this: On August 16, 1975, an off-duty cop driving around his own neighborhood in a suburb of Salt Lake City saw a Volkswagen Bug that didn't belong there driving with its lights off. Bundy promptly took off. The cop eventually chased him down and cited Bundy for failure to stop for an officer and possession of burglary tools. A detective connected Bundy with an open case of kidnapping and attempted murder. He was soon linked with some two dozen murders and became America's most notorious serial killer. This happened ''two more times''. After he was convicted of kidnapping in Utah, Colorado extradited him to face a murder charge. Bundy managed to escape (''after'' an attempted escape in Utah), but was pulled over in a stolen car weaving in and out of the lanes. He then managed to escape ''yet again'' from a Colorado jail and went to Florida, where he killed two more women. He was then stopped in ''another'' stolen car by a patrol officer making a routine check and captured for the last time. |
| 733 | ** Serial killer Joel Rifkin initially drew the attention of a patrolman for driving without a license plate. When he was stopped (after a high-speed chase), police found the body of a dead prostitute in the trunk. Rifkin was eventually convicted of 17 murders. |
| 734 | ** Similarly, Leonard Lake and Charles Ng kidnapped and killed upwards of 25 people together and were only stopped when Ng was caught shoplifting from a hardware store, having driven there in a car that belonged to one of their victims. Lake was taken into custody where he promptly [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled killed himself]] knowing it was all over, but Ng managed to evade authorities until he was again busted while shoplifting. |
| 735 | ** Police in Britain pulled over a man named Peter Sutcliffe for driving with fake licence plates and caught him with a sex worker in his car. When Sutcliffe was brought in, officers recognised his striking resemblence to composite sketches of the Yorkshire Ripper - a then-unidentified serial killer [[OhCrap who targeted sex workers]]. Sutcliffe eventually confessed to the crimes and received a life sentence. |
| 736 | ** The Riverside Killer William Suff was arrested after he made an illegal U-Turn and a rope and a bloody knife were found in his car. |
| 737 | ** Serial killer Randy Kraft was caught when police officers stopped him for drunk driving and realized that his passenger had been strangled to death. |
| 738 | ** Canadian serial killer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cody_Legebokoff Cody Legebokoff]] was caught when a [[UsefulNotes/TheMounties RCMP officer]] saw him pull onto the highway from a remote logging road and speeding erratically. The RCMP officer suspected that he was a poacher and pulled him over. The officer then found several tools covered in blood and arrested Cody for poaching. A conservation officer was sent to find the poached animal, but instead found the remains of one of Cody's victims. |
| 739 | ** Robert Ben Rhoades, the "Truck Stop Killer" implicated in the rape, torture and murder of dozens of women across the United States, was apprehended when an Arizona Highway Patrol officer went over to investigate after seeing his truck parked at the side of the interstate with its hazard lights on, only to catch him in the act of raping his latest victim in the back of the truck. |
| 740 | ** The Charles UsefulNotes/MansonFamily was originally arrested for car theft, and it wasn't until one of them bragged to a fellow inmate that they were implicated in the string of high-profile murders occurring at the time. |
| 741 | * The "Festina Affair" that first blew the lid off the systematic doping by teams at the UsefulNotes/TourDeFrance in 1998 began with one of the Festina team's cars being routinely stopped by customs at the France-Belgium border and the discovery of steroids, EPO, syringes and other paraphernalia in the car's trunk. |
| 742 | * ''Film/NineEleven'' started filming as a documentary about the journey of Tony Benetatos, a probationary firefighter aspiring to become a full-fledged firefighter in New York City. On September 11, 2001, while Tony's battalion investigated a supposed gas leak at Church and Lispenard, co-director Jules Naudet captured one of the only ''three'' known recordings to clearly show American Airlines Flight 11 crashing into the World Trade Center's North Tower. |
| 743 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_PTL_Club#Scandal_and_subsequent_demise The PTL scandal]] could have its beginning linked to a 1980 scandal involving a sexual encounter between PTL founder Jim Bakker (who was temporarily separated from then-wife Tammy Faye) and a young church secretary named Jessica Hahn (depending on whether you believe either Hahn's account; accusing Bakker of essentially date-raping her, or Bakker's version, stating the sex was consensual and possibly an attempt at revenge due to Tammy Faye's infatuation with [[RecordProducer music producer]] Gary S. Paxton). What got the Charlotte Observer's attention was initial concerns of financial misdeeds such as the $1,000 lifetime partnerships for their Heritage USA theme park, along with later revelations that $265,000 was given to Hahn as "hush money" to keep the incident quiet. |
| 744 | * In the 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, which is one of the largest at over $100 million, the criminals were largely caught thanks to littering when they made a rather unlucky choice of where to dump their trash and it was quickly found the next day by an annoyed resident. |
| 745 | * In 2012, a chef at the Virginia Governor's Mansion was fired for stealing food from the mansion. The investigation into this small-time petty crime ended up revealing a far more serious crime involving Governor Bob [=McDonnell=] accepting extremely expensive gifts in return for illegally using his office to market a dietary supplement. The chef ended up with two misdemeanor embezzlement charges, while [=McDonnell=] and his wife were convicted of a combined ''19 felony charges'' relating to corruption and fraud. |
| 746 | * In April 2011, sheriff's deputies in Gloucester County, Virginia, searched a home for stolen property. [[http://hamptonroads.com/2011/06/gloucester-residents-dark-child-abuse-came-light They found]] a six-year-old girl near death, locked in a cage, apparently having been hidden from society for most of her life. And her brother's remains buried under a shed. |
| 747 | * After assassinating UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy and Officer J.D. Tippet, Lee Harvey Oswald was nabbed while sneaking into a movie theater without paying for a ticket. The theater manager suspected Oswald might be more than a petty criminal and called the cops. |
| 748 | ** Although Jim Garrison's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Clay_Shaw prosecution]] of Clay Shaw has been generally ridiculed by serious assassination researchers, Creator/OliverStone found the way it spun out of a fight between two low-rent [[PrivateDetective private eyes]] to be fascinating, which led to the movie ''Film/{{JFK}}''. |
| 749 | --->'''Oliver Stone:''' ''This pistol whipping occurs on the night of November 22, 1963, on a rainy night in which this guy, Jack Martin, gets his skull laid open by his boss, Guy Banister, and out of that little Creator/RaymondChandler kind of incident, Garrison spins this tale of international intrigue -- a hell of a trail. As a dramatist, that excited me.'' |
| 750 | * Malcolm Webster, the Black Widower, was tripped up in this manner. Alleged embezzlement of angler club funds → murder of Claire Morris, his first wife, and attempted murder of Felicity Drumm, his second wife. |
| 751 | * Britain's most prolific serial killer, Dr. Harold Shipman, was originally investigated over allegations that he had forged the will of a recently deceased patient. The fake will was traceable to his typewriter, which led to the patient being exhumed. Traces of diamorphine were found in her body, and other apparently healthy patients who died suddenly were then also exhumed. It has been suggested that Shipman deliberately invoked the trope himself, making the ham-fisted forgery because he ''wanted'' to be caught. |
| 752 | * A pair of ''Los Angeles Times'' journalists investigating small-time malfeasance in Maywood, California, then stumbled across [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Bell_scandal a much larger, far-reaching embezzling scheme in the neighboring town of Bell]]. Despite having a population of 35,000, three of its leaders had annual incomes higher than the President of the United States. The embezzlement is so complicated and intense that it threatened to suck the people of both Bell and Maywood dry of money, and five years later, the FBI is still discovering new ways that Bell officials had siphoned money into their hands. |
| 753 | * The 1962 assassination attempt on French President UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle was solved when a wanted Foreign Legion deserter was detained for not having papers at a police checkpoint. |
| 754 | * On April 20, 2007, a man named Davon Boddie was arrested for pot dealing outside of the Royal Suite nightclub in Roanoke, Virginia. Boddie was the cousin of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball Atlanta Falcons quarterback]] Michael Vick and gave Vick's home address as his own. Five days later, police searched the home and discovered a massive [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Newz_Kennels_dog_fighting_investigation dog-fighting ring]], leading to the arrest and conviction of Vick and four others. |
| 755 | * In 2005, a former Brazil Postal Service executive was filmed negotiating a bribe, while saying he had the backing of a congressman. Said politician went on to reveal [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensalão_scandal the government was buying the support of a lot of deputies]]. If that wasn't big enough, a decade later a money laundering operation using a gas station uncovered [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Car_Wash a massive corruption scheme]] that sunk the value of the country's biggest company and ultimately forced the president out of office--which, embarrassingly enough, happened right after she was forced to miss the Olympics due to a suspension pending a verdict in an impeachment trial intended to remove her. |
| 756 | ** And, as of 2017, the latter scandal has resulted in an investigation into Brazil's sitting president, the vice president who had replaced the president, ''and'' the conviction of her predecessor on corruption charges. All this galvanized support for the Brazilian far-right, culminating in the controversial election of the very far-right-aligned UsefulNotes/JairBolsonaro to the Brazilian Presidency in 2018. And the corruption has only gotten worse under him, to the point where the people are actively calling for ''him'' to be impeached, too--it doesn't help that the obstruction investigation the Supreme Court authorized towards the end of April 2020 in the wake of his termination of Brazil's top cop came as the country was sinking fast under the weight of his gross mismanagement of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. |
| 757 | * In late 1670s France, an investigation into a forged marriage certificate led to the exposure of a massive network of poisoners, one that reached as far as the inner circle of UsefulNotes/LouisXIV. The "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affair_of_the_Poisons Affair of the Poisons]]" became one of the greatest[[note]]not to mention one of the most ''damaging'' in the long run: one of those involved - the Countess of Soissons - had a son who wanted to join the Army but was [[SinsOfOurFathers rejected for her involvement]]. His name? ''Prince Eugene of Savoy''; Eugene was insulted by the refusal, so he left his homeland and betrayed France for their Habsburg rivals, [[CreateYourOwnVillain eventually becoming Louis's archnemesis and being one of the factors preventing Louis from securing French hegemony in Europe]][[/note]] scandals in French history. |
| 758 | * The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profumo_affair Profumo Affair]] began when a petty criminal fired at a house his ex-girlfriend was hiding in and resulted in the UsefulNotes/HaroldMacmillan government being permanently discredited. |
| 759 | * Around the time Creator/{{Nintendo}} released one of its disc-based consoles, a bunch of employees at one game store decided to play a prank involving a Box of Stupid, an empty box for a console which they had filled with junk to see if anybody would steal it. [[https://notalwaysright.com/box-of-stolen-stupid/60198/ The unlucky victim was their assistant manager]], and the incident turned out to be just the latest in which he had been helping himself to the store's inventory. |
| 760 | * An investigation into how the daughter of a NewAge UsefulNotes/SouthKorea cultist managed to get into a prestigious academy despite weak grades eventually led to the discovery of the enormous influence the cult had on President Park Gun-hye and her subsequent impeachment. |
| 761 | * A curious state trooper stumbles upon CriminalConvention on November 14, 1957 → the discovery of a secretive Italian-American criminal society called ''[[UsefulNotes/TheMafia Cosa Nostra]]'', or Our Thing in Italian. Vito Genovese, the organizer of the disastrous Apalachin Meeting, received a lot of flak from his peers and was imprisoned on presumably flimsy drug charges. Later on, a low-level mobster named Joe Valachi squeals on national TV in 1963, giving a good glimpse on the mob's inner workings and a who's who of the Mafia. |
| 762 | ** Later in the late 1970s, FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone attempted to infiltrate mob-affiliated truck hijacking and burglary crews by posing as a jewelry thief named "Film/DonnieBrasco". Barely getting past by the fences that were his initial target, Pistone found himself making contacts in the Bonnano family to the point of being proposed for membership. The intel gathered by his investigation revealed the existence and scope of the Mafia Commission, links between the various Mafia families in the country, mob involvement in labor racketeering, and a large-scale drug-running operation between the United States and Sicily. |
| 763 | * In the late 1970s and early 1980s, American and Italian authorities were investigating the business failures of prominent banker [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Sindona Michele Sindona]], due to reports of financial irregularities. Digging into bank records and Sindona's dirty laundry revealed not only that he was a fraudster and connected to TheMafia, but also the existence of a very scary secret society called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due Propaganda Due]] that held a lot of influence over Italian government and society. |
| 764 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_bribery_scandals The Lockheed Bribery scandals]] began as an inquiry into Lockheed for the potential misappropriation of government bailout money. By the time it was over, a multinational bribery scandal had been revealed that caused major shakeups in the governments of Italy, Japan, West Germany, and the Netherlands, the arrest of the Japanese prime minister, a ''kamikaze attack on a Yakuza boss's house by a far right activist pornstar'', a constitutional crisis in the Netherlands and nearly destroyed Lockheed as a company for good. |
| 765 | * The attempted [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Dome_raid Millennium Dome heist]] and the subsequent sting operation that led to the arrest of the would-be robbers began when police investigated a series of sophisticated armored car heists. While by no means small, they would have paled in comparison to a successful heist at the Millennium Dome, which would have netted the robbers £350 million in diamonds. |
| 766 | * In 1991, Hollywood was beset by four bizarre events: one of Creator/DustinHoffman's checks bounced, the premiere of ''Film/ThelmaAndLouise'' was delayed, Creator/SeanConnery threatened to boycott the premiere of ''Film/TheRussiaHouse'' over an overdue letter of credit, ''and'' Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer missed a payment of bond interest. Within a few years, all four events were traced back to the Italian fraudster Giancarlo Parretti (a protégé of the above-mentioned Michele Sindona), who'd embezzled ''billions'' from not only [=MGM=], but also Crédit Lyonnais (then the largest bank in France) and several smaller film studios; the entire sordid saga can be read about [[https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1996/07/08/214344/index.htm here]]. Credit Lyonnais ultimately wound up selling MGM back to Kirk Kerkorian, while their library of films from almost all the other film companies they'd become entangled with, rolled under the "Epic Productions" banner[[note]]Creator/StudioCanal managed to get the libraries of Creator/CarolcoPictures, Embassy Pictures and De Laurentiis Entertainment Group; thanks to pre-existing deals the Embassy titles are, in the US, licensed to MGM[[/note]] wound up being sold to Creator/PolyGramFilmedEntertainment in 1996; two years later, [=PolyGram=] was bought out by Seagram's -- mostly for their music holdings -- and their pre-1996 library, including all the stuff they'd bought from Credit Lyonnais, was sold to MGM and integrated into their Creator/OrionPictures holdings. |
| 767 | * This can happen twice to the same person. In 1957, 23-year-old [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Mason Gerald Mason]] ran a red light in California, was stopped by two police officers, and promptly shot them. He was just driving a stolen car from a lover's lane where he had robbed four teenagers at gunpoint and raped one of them. ''45 years'' later, a computerized fingerprint database found a match between a print in the steering wheel of the car and Mason's file for a burglary in South Carolina in 1956. The police went to look for Mason, who was now a wealthy, retired businessman and grandfather. He immediately collapsed and confessed everything. He had little choice because he still bore in his back the scar left by a bullet fired by one of the officers as he fled. |
| 768 | * The Sandusky Affair started with one Aaron Fisher, then a freshman at Central Mountain High School, mentioning a relationship with former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky that involved "inappropriate touching". Three years later, it would explode into a university-wide scandal that went all the way up to its president, among other higher-ups, cost one of the all-time most revered college football coaches his job shortly before his death, got the NCAA involved, and still influences local politics and leaves bitter memories among Penn State alumni to this day. |
| 769 | * Rinse and repeat with the case of Larry Nassar at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, only the second major sex scandal to rock the sports world since the Sandusky Affair. It started when a coach heard one of her gymnasts and another girl discussing Nassar's "treatments" and thought that something didn't sound right, so she reported it. From there, what unfolded was a full-blown sex abuse case, with well over a hundred victims ultimately named, and Nassar receiving a LongerThanLifeSentence. What's more, the investigation not only involved Nassar himself, but also implicated Michigan State University and a few higher-ups at USA Gymnastics in a major coverup, and also opened the door for subsequent allegations of verbal and physical abuse against individual coaches. The full extent of the situation may not be known until the conclusion of the investigation, which is expected to take years. |
| 770 | * The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal Volkswagen emissions scandal]] was also revealed this way when a small research team from West Virginia University did a study on the difference in emissions between European and American cars. While they were at it, they discovered a difference in emissions from Volkswagen cars in a controlled environment and those same cars on actual roads. When investigated, it turned out that Volkswagen had been installing "defeat devices" on ''all'' its diesel cars, fooling laboratory tests into thinking the cars met standards they didn't in actual driving. The fallout from that, including a major backlash against diesel cars as a whole to the point of threatening to end their relevance both de jure in certain parts of Europe ''and'' de facto most elsewhere, caused Volkswagen stock to drop by a third, several higher-ups resigned or were suspended, and ended up with a 2.8 billion dollar fine. [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat One wonders why they thought that would be less expensive than actually bringing their cars up to standard]]. |
| 771 | * In the late '80s, a certain priest in Louisiana named Gilbert Gauthe was busted for molesting dozens upon dozens of children. Over the next few decades, it became increasingly clear that he was only the first case of a real-life PedophilePriest to be exposed, and when the lid was blown on Pennsylvania in 2018, Gauthe turned out to be not even the earliest real-life example by ''four decades'', and in a similar fallout to the Weinstein Effect law enforcement is hellbent on finding out how much worse it is than what has already been revealed. Worse, the entire scandal has the potential to cause the single biggest schism this side of the Reformation, as traditional Catholics who supported Pope Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict, and reformist Catholics who back the decidedly more liberal-minded Pope Francis are at each other’s throats like never before. |
| 772 | * In December 2018, Niagara Regional Police noticed a car [[StealingTheHandicappedSpot parked in a handicapped spot without a permit]]. They checked the plates and discovered it [[https://www.niagarathisweek.com/news-story/9083080-patrol-officers-recover-rifle-in-stolen-vehicle-in-niagara-falls/ was stolen]], with a prohibited rifle and fentanyl opioids in the backseat. |
| 773 | * The dissemination of stolen emails from the DNC and various members of the Clinton campaign in the 2016 presidential election led to the revelation that the Russian government had a sophisticated digital operation to meddle in the election. It began as just a disinformation campaign that involved in helping Trump and hurting Clinton. While the relationship between Trump and the Russians goes back to the '80s, the operation really ramped up after Trump went to Moscow in December 2013 for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections the Miss Universe pageant]]. According to the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, no Americans were willing accomplices in an active conspiracy with the Russians, but there were a few people [[UnwittingPawn who helped but didn’t know]]. |
| 774 | ** There was also another big plot for Russian influence in the election uncovered by a relatively small crime, being an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Russian National Maria Butina started a Master’s program in 2016 at American University in Washington DC which ended up being merely a cover story. She was a purported Russian gun rights advocate who’d been dabbling in American politics for a few years at that point, mainly with the NRA. She had been under the mentorship of Russian oligarch/former member of parliament, Aleksandr Torshin since 2011. She was charged and later pleaded guilty to the fairly minor aforementioned crime. Turns out the Russian government was trying to covertly fund the NRA as a roundabout way to help Trump (foreign nationals aren’t allowed to donate to American elections) and she was the point(wo)man. The only American who’s been charged in this scheme is her boyfriend, Paul Erickson, who has been indicted on the also relatively minor to the accusations charges of wire fraud and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Butina money laundering]]. |
| 775 | * A pediatrician working for Indian Health Services is assaulted by one of his patients → multiple allegations of pedophilic sexual abuse by said pediatrician, a certain Stanley Patrick Weber. |
| 776 | * The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_college_admissions_bribery_scandal 2019 college admissions bribery scandal]] got blown open because Morrie Tobin, who was under investigation by the SEC in an unrelated pump-and-dump securities fraud, offered information about the admissions scheme to the government in exchange for leniency. An alumnus of Yale, he told authorities that the Yale women's soccer head coach, Rudolph "Rudy" Meredith, had asked for $450,000 in exchange for helping his daughter gain admission to the school. The FBI had Tobin wear a wire while talking to Meredith in a Boston hotel on April 12, 2018; Meredith subsequently agreed to cooperate with the FBI and led them to William Rick Singer, the ringleader. |
| 777 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_David_Ortiz A retired Major League Baseball player is shot in a hit gone wrong]] → a drug running conspiracy. |
| 778 | * While not so much "minor" as much as a case of two seemingly unrelated crimes being connected that led to the downfall of former Illinois Republican Governor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ryan George Ryan]]. During an investigation into a traffic accident in Wisconsin where 6 children in the Wills family were killed while the parents survived but were severely burned, it was discovered that unqualified truck drivers were giving out bribes to members of Ryan's staff when Ryan was Illinois Secretary of State; resulting in a grand total of 79 people (mostly state officials and lobbyists) being charged - 76 of them convicted while Ryan decided not to run for a 2nd term in 2002[[note]]shortly before leaving office, Ryan - who had gained national notice a few years earlier by reversing his previous stand on the death penalty - issued blanket commutations of all of Illinois' death row inmates; converting the sentences to life in prison, a move that had many conservatives suspicious of the timing in light of the corruption scandal appearing to close in on the Governor[[/note]]; eventually being indicted on 22 various counts in late 2003 (during the trial, Ryan's daughters and one son-in-law would also be implicated in the scheme); and - aided by part by Ryan's former chief of staff Scott Fawell testifying against Ryan - eventually being convicted on all charges (two of which would be thrown out by the judge in post-trial motions) and would ultimately serve 6 and a half years in federal prison. |
| 779 | * An investigation into fraudulent credit card charges of carpet cleaning business ZZZZ Best by the ''Los Angeles Times'' led to the lid being blown off one of the biggest accounting scandals ever, involving fraudulent restoration jobs and eventually revealing that ZZZZ Best was just a front for a Ponzi scheme. The scheme landed whiz-kid founder Barry Minkow in federal prison in 1988. After Minkow's release in 1995, he became a pastor, but eventually fell back into his old ways, pleading guilty to securities fraud in 2011 and to defrauding his church in 2014, serving a five year sentence and paying restitution to the tune of $3.4 million, on top of the $26 million he was ordered to pay for the ZZZZ Best scheme. |
| 780 | * [[https://www.cracked.com/blog/5-dumb-ways-celebrity-scandals-were-uncovered/ Cracked has this article about]] the little things that unearthed several major celebrity scandals, including the aforementioned college admissions scandal. |
| 781 | * As [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhN-o2ame-4 covered]] by ''WebVideo/DownTheRabbitHole'', the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_diethylene_glycol_wine_scandal 1985 Austrian Wine Poisoning Scandal]] initially started when a wine-ferrying trucker refused to allow his cargo to be tainted with water. His tipping off of it to the Austrian government eventually snowballed into one of the biggest public health scandals in central Europe. Investigators discovered that thanks to climate change causing premature grape abscission, wine makers nationwide were regularly tainting sweet wines with diethylene glycol, an initially hard-to-detect but highly toxic chemical used in wallpaper remover and some brands of antifreeze. The end result? Countless arrests and incarcerations, the total collapse of the Austrian wine industry (which would take around a decade to fully recover), and massive amounts of public ridicule around the world, up to and including a jab from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in it's season one episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E11TheCrepesOfWrath "The Crepes of Wrath"]].[[note]]On the upside, after the industry recovered, the extremely strict regulations implemented in the wake of the scandal made Austrian wine some of the most trusted in the world.[[/note]] |
| 782 | * The energy company Enron saw its luck sour in 2001 as many questioned their finances when Enron's reported stock value was ''55 times larger'' than their earnings, along with numerous other opaque and bizarre accounting practices. This and other discrepancies forced the SEC to do its own investigation, and as it went on, more and more crimes were uncovered. What had essentially started into looking into the odd accounting practices of the company mushroomed into a laundry list of crimes committed by and with the knowledge of the majority of its executives that included embezzlement, insider trading and fraud, the last of which included a supervillain-level scheme of deliberately blacking out California to profit on hugely inflated energy prices. The end result saw several Enron executives going to prison (and the CEO dying of a heart attack before he could be sentenced), stronger penalties for "cooking the books", and Enron becoming the world's largest corporate bankruptcy in history until the collapse of [=WorldCom=] just about a year later. The fallout also destroyed the reputation of Arthur Andersen, one of the world's largest accounting firms, so thoroughly that they too soon folded. |
| 783 | ** The [=WorldCom=] scandal was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldCom_scandal also one of these]]. One random financial analyst, Kim Emigh, was instructed to basically commit tax fraud; attempting to escalate the matter got him fired, and he told the ''Fort Worth Weekly'' about the incident. An internal audit manager at [=WorldCom=] caught wind of the article and decided to initiate their own investigation. Things soon snowballed until the extent of the scheme was uncovered; much like what happened at Enron, the higher-ups had been cooking the books (using something they called "prepaid capacity") in an attempt to inflate the stock price amid the dot-com bubble's bursting. [=WorldCom=] promptly went bankrupt (taking the title of largest bankruptcy away from Enron), and was reorganized into the new MCI (MCI and [=WorldCom=] having merged in 1998); the new MCI didn't last long before Verizon acquired it in 2006. |
| 784 | * Another corporate financial scandal was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_scandal one that erupted in the early 2010s at Olympus, the Japanese camera company]]. Former head of European medical devices group wonders why Tokyo handled the buyouts of European businesses instead of him -> is KickedUpstairs in hopes of shutting him up -> continues investigating and gets fired for it -> independent audits reveal massive financial malfeasance and possible links to the Yakuza(!) More investigation uncovered that this had been going as early as the 1980s, in part to combat the weakening of the yen as the US worked to prevent [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japan from taking over the world]], and subsequently had ballooned out of control during the "Lost Decade" (after the Japanese economic bubble burst). |
| 785 | * In 1948, an attempted robbery took place in Los Angeles, in which the perpetrator was shot and killed. Normally, this wouldn't lead to much... but the investigation revealed an illicit partnership (and a possible love affair) between LAPD vice cop Elmer V. Jackson and brothel madam Brenda Allen. The subsequent prostitution and police corruption trials resulted in a massive shake-up and reform of the Los Angeles Police Department. |
| 786 | * In January 2020, the head of San Francisco's Public Works Department (Mohammed "Mr. Clean" Nuru) and restaurant owner Nick Bovis [[https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press-release/file/1240101/download were arrested by the FBI for a 2018 attempt to bribe an airport official with five thousand dollars]], which the official reported. Over the next year, a "permit expediter" named Walter Wing Lok Wong [[https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/06/24/fbi-doj-walter-wong-public-works-permits-plea-deal.html agreed to cooperate with authorities]], revealing a history of bribery and fraud going back to at least 2004 and leading to the [[https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2020/sf-city-hall-corruption-who-is-nuru/ arrest or resignation]] of, among others, the General Manager of the Public Utilities Commission, the Building Inspections Director, and the City Administrator (the highest-ranked appointed official in the city), with revelations of millions of dollars in bribes and [[https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press-release/file/1341026/download cheating on multi-million dollar bids]], with indictments from the US Attorney, city attorney, and the IRS. (As of January 2021, the investigation is ongoing.) |
| 787 | * [[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/matt-gaetz-joel-greenberg-allegations-b1825263.html A tax collector's house is raided in connection with his stalking of a political rival]] → a sex trafficking ring also involving local representative Matt Gaetz (R). OnlyInFlorida! This has since mushroomed into allegations that Gaetz was in a pay-to-play scheme that included paid travel and escorts in exchange for doling out political favors to marijuana companies, attempted to obstruct justice by intimidating witnesses, and had inappropriate relationships with female staffers. |
| 788 | * In 2001; the FBI was investigating general corruption in the government of Waterbury, Connecticut[[note]]often likened to a New England version of UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} with regards to municipal corruption[[/note]] when phone records and photographs were discovered of Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano, who had been the Republican nominee almost by default running against 2-term incumbent Democratic Senator (and in 2000; the nominee for Vice-President) Joe Lieberman, alongside a [[TheOldestProfession local prostitute]] and, more seriously, [[PaedoHunt the woman's underage daughter and niece]]. The scandal tanked Giordano's campaign, leading to Lieberman winning a third term in a {{landslide|Election}}. Giordano would eventually be arrested and ultimately convicted on 14 counts of using an interstate device (his cellphone) to arrange sexual contact with children, receiving a 37-year prison sentence - with Giordano not eligible for release until 2034. |
| 789 | * In 1951, one foreman in a Soviet unit dealing with construction since 1942 complained to the police that he was not being paid correctly. An investigation was opened, showing that the entire unit was a huge scam created by one Nikolay Pavlenko, a deserter first lieutenant who faked documents [[PhonyVeteran proclaiming him a colonel]]. The unit was busy not only with construction profits, but also looting German territory during the war. 400 were arrested, Pavlenko was shot, 16 sentenced, the rest released due to not knowing the truth themselves. Some senior officials tied to them were discharged as well, but avoided trial. |
| 790 | * In April 2010, a police officer searching the home of 76-year-old Joseph Naso, who had been arrested for shoplifting, found multiple images of Naso violating women and a diary in which he detailed multiple murders. Naso was eventually convicted of the murders of four women, but is suspected of more. |
| 791 | * Saudi Arabian police arrested a teenager for vagrancy in 2009. In order to avoid charges, he told police that he had witnessed his father, Awdah Salem, murdering a woman, causing them to suspect he was the serial killer who had murdered three Indonesian maids in Yanbu. A double example because Saudi police wanted to hold off on charging him until they had proof he had killed all three victims. Eventually they found evidence he was actually a Yemeni citizen and was living in Saudi Arabia under a false passport, allowing them to arrest him, search his house and find the evidence they needed. |
| 792 | * The FBI's Operation ABSCAM, initially targeting forgers and art thieves, ended up uncovering widespread political corruption and leading to the conviction of multiple state representatives and a senator after a forger targeted in the sting mentioned that gambling licences could be bought from New Jersey politicians. |
| 793 | * An investigation into pornography being illegally sold in Soho → [[https://flashbak.com/the-schoolkids-oz-dirty-books-and-the-downfall-of-the-dirty-squad-56477/ a series of corruption inquiries and trials]] when it was revealed not only that the so-called "Dirty Squad"[[note]]the Metropolitan Police's Obscene Publications Squad[[/note]] were on the pornographers' payroll, but that the corruption extended to multiple high-ranking officers. |
| 794 | * The [[https://victoriandetectives.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/scandal-at-scotland-yard/ Turf Fraud Scandal]]: a run-of-the-mill confidence trick → three of the Metropolitan Police's highest-ranking detectives were on the take and helped criminals to evade the police. |
| 795 | * The [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Joe_Gliniewicz suicide of Joe Gliniewicz]]. A former police officer is murdered → the murder was actually a suicide staged to look like a murder in order to cover up a massive embezzlement and money laundering scheme run by the dead man and an attempt to arrange the assassination of a city auditor investigating the scheme. |
| 796 | * In 1984, the arrest of a man for driving an unregistered vehicle with a forged license led to the discovery and killing of fugitive South African bank robber [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Stander André Stander]] in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. |
| 797 | * The case of TheBluebeard [[https://heathermonroe.medium.com/the-prolific-murders-and-marriages-of-james-p-watson-afb8216b83e7 James P. Watson]]. Bigamy → the murders of seven women. |
| 798 | * In 2017, a janitor finds a loaded gun in the bathroom of an airport, and catches a German officer whose fingerprints are registered as a Syrian refugee. Further investigations revealed the existence of a neo-Nazi plot called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_X_plot Day X]], where special forces members, military officials, and police officers with neo-Nazi sympathies planned to stockpile weapons and assassinate left-leaning members of the federal government to seize power. |
| 799 | * Veronica Packman disappeared in 1985. Her husband Russell Causley was suspected, but the case was dropped after somebody claiming to be her contacted police. Several years later in 1993, Causley was arrested after he was caught FakingTheDead so his girlfriend could claim a life insurance payout. This fraud brought the case to the attention of the Dorset Police, who became suspicious about Veronica's disappearance due to there being no trace of her after she supposedly turned up alive. Their enquiry uncovered constant changing stories by Causley about his wife's whereabouts[[note]]Claiming at various times she was in Canada, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, or still in the UK and married to another man[[/note]], the forging of Veronica's signature by Causley on multiple documents she had supposedly signed after her disappearance, a family member who claimed Causley had confessed to killing his wife during an argument and three fellow prisoners who Causley allegedly confessed to, including one who told police that Causley had admitted having a friend's wife impersonate Veronica. Causley was convicted of Veronica's murder, and very likely would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for the life insurance fraud. |
| 800 | * An investigation by the Wall Street Journal for sexual misconduct and infidelity in 2022 led to Wrestling/VinceMcMahon resigning as chairman and CEO from Wrestling/{{WWE}} after revealing the head honcho had been involved in extramarital affairs with four other women, and he shelled out cash on them as a way to keep their mouths shut. |
| 801 | * The UK's infamous Thorpe affair. An inept thug shoots a dog and makes a half-hearted attempt to kill the dog's owner → a conspiracy by a prominent politician to murder his gay lover. |
| 802 | * Modesto Officers investigating a domestic violence case uncover [[https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/more-than-100-dogs-found-at-modesto-home-during-domestic-violence-investigation/ar-AAXwZxp a puppy mill run by the accused abuser]]. |
| 803 | * On May 29, 1986, a sting operation led to the arrest of two men for stealing a yacht. This resulted in the discovery that one of them, [[DirtyCop LAPD officer "Mild Bill" Leasure]], [[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-27-tm-1150-story.html spent his free time running a criminal underworld that stole yachts and cars, defrauded insurance companies and conducted contract killings]]. |
| 804 | * In 1923, police in the Soviet Union were called to deal with a horse trader who was suspected of illegal alcohol production. While searching his stable for alcohol, they found a murdered body hidden under the haystack. It turned out that the trader, Vasili Komaroff, was a SerialKiller who had murdered 22 other people before that one. |
| 805 | * Indian SerialKiller Rasu Miah confessed to killing eleven women after being caught stealing a ceiling fan from a mosque. |
| 806 | * The collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX: News website ''[=CoinDesk=]'' reports on the connection between FTX and its sister trading firm Alameda Research, revealing that the bulk of Alameda's holdings were in the form of FTX's own token, FTT. In simplified terms, FTX's wealth came from printing their own money and using the activities of a closely associated company to artificially inflate its value, a tactic that is illegal in traditional banking. This ultimately led to FTX's collapse as FTT lost its value, revealing a much wider scheme of fraud and embezzlement between the two companies. |
| 807 | * John Edward Robinson was arrested in June 2000 after a woman filed a sexual battery complaint and another charged him with stealing her sex toys. The police then found that he had murdered eight women, four of whom he met online. |
| 808 | * In 2019, a man was beaten up by security at a South Korean nightclub named Burning Sun. He claimed that he had been attacked after intervening to help a woman being sexually harassed by club staff. This led to more accusations coming out about numerous cases of date rape and non-consensual filming and online sharing of sex acts at the Burning Sun, including by [[KoreanPopMusic K-pop]] singers Choi Jong-hoon and Jung Joon-young. Things escalated further when group chat messages were discovered showing that famous K-pop singer Seungri, Burning Sun's publicity director, had not only been aware of the endemic rape at the club, but had directed employees to procure prostitutes in order to bribe potential investors for his nightclub business, Yuri Holdings. The result was the prosecution of numerous persons involved at Burning Sun and Yuri Holdings, with those convicted including Seungri, Jong-hoon, Joon-young and Seungri's business partner Yoo In-seok, who exposed yet more malfeasance when he implicated himself and Seungri in embezzling money from Yuri Holdings. In addition, several police officers were accused of [[DirtyCop accepting bribes]] from Seungri in return for turning a blind eye to the crimes committed at the club. |
| 809 | * In 1995, Montreal animator Claude Robinson sued production company CINAR for allegedly plagiarizing the concept of ''WesternAnimation/RobinsonSucroe'' from a 1986 pitch he'd made to the company. In the ensuing investigation, Canadian authorities discovered that CINAR's co-founders, Ronald Weinberg and Micheline Charest, had embezzled millions from the company via offshore bank accounts, including money earmarked for Canadian content development. Weinberg and Charest wound up fired in 2001 and CINAR went down the tubes for a few years, until its assets were purchased by Creator/{{Nelvana}} founder Michael Hirsh. As for Robinson, the court ruled in his favor and awarded him $5.2 million in damages. |
| 810 | * In June of 2023, the GRAC (effectively the South Korean equivalent to the [[UsefulNotes/EntertainmentSoftwareRatingBoard ESRB]]) was investigated and its members were found out to have embezzled ''700 million won'' (Approx. $532,000 US Dollars based on the Won - USD exchange rate as of early July 2023) in taxpayer money to fund personal ventures into cryptocurrency, prompting several criminal charges and an overhaul of the entire ratings board committee. The reason for the investigation? A petition by disgruntled ''VideoGame/BlueArchive'' players that was started back in October 2022, protesting their game getting an unwarranted bump in age rating from 15 to [=18+=]. |
| 811 | * A DEA raid, on suspicions of illegal prescription sales, led to the uncovering of a deeply unsanitary abortion clinic in Philadelphia, where the unsafe practices of [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_Gosnell Kermit Gosnell]] had inflicted several women with serious injuries or venereal diseases. Worse, Gosnell had not only aborted multiple foetuses which were past the legal cut-off point, but had even outright murdered several babies after they were born and kept their remains in jars. |
| 812 | * In 1976, while applying for a visa, a Soviet military officer found a discrepancy in his family documents: one of his relatives was actually [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonina_Makarova Antonina Makarova]], a notorious Nazi collaborator who had murdered thousands of Soviet prisoners. After being identified by several people who had known her during World War II, Makarova was executed for treason in 1979. |
| 813 | * The largest drug trafficking investigation in Finnish history is known as the "Katiska case". The name refers to how the investigation started; from officers responding to a report of a domestic disturbance at an apartment at Katiskapolku, where the officers found a large stash of drugs, and the participants of the reported domestic disturbance ready to cut a deal to reduce their sentences. |
| 814 | * The last execution of a teenager in British history, when 19-year-old Anthony Miller was hanged for murder in 1960, came about when one of Miller's friends was arrested for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottaging cottaging]] in a public park and found to have a newspaper clipping on him about a murder that had happened in the same park earlier that year; police got suspicious and questioned him about it, and he soon confessed that he and Miller had been involved. |
| 815 | * In 1903, a maid in Essex sued her former employer, Samuel Herbert Dougal, for unpaid bastardy payments (the contemporary term for child support). The court began investigating Dougal's source of income further and discovered that, while he had no legal income, he had been involved in a number of forgery and fraud schemes which had made most of his money. This led to questions about the whereabouts of one of his former wives, who he had bigamously married as part of a fraud scheme and who had since gone missing, having last been seen leaving in a carriage with Dougal who later falsely claimed she had left the country. Her murdered body was eventually found buried on the property and Dougal was hanged for her murder. |
| 816 | * As [[https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/28/new-york-satanic-cult-764-fbi reported]] by ''The Guardian'', the arrest of a 23-year-old in New York in 2021 on gun possession charges led the FBI to the discovery of 764, a "Neo-Nazi Satanist extortion cult" accused of luring minors into the group and then manipulating and blackmailing them into performing violent and sexually explicit acts on video. |
| 817 | [[/folder]] |
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