History Main / GraveRobbing

* ''Fanfic/MyBrotherCainMyBrotherAbel'' [[WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse Caleb Wittebane's]] grave is dug up by his brother in order to make grimwalkers, this not only is devastating to his wife Evelyn, who [[TalkToTheDead found comfort in her weekly ritual of visiting her husband's grave]] but also resulted in Caleb's soul being pulled from Heaven and stuck in limbo for 400 year.

* ''Fanfic/MyBrotherCainMyBrotherAbel'' [[WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse Caleb Wittebane's] grave is dug up by his brother in order to make grimwalkers, this not only is devastating to his wife Evelyn, who [[TalkToTheDead found comfort in her weekly ritual of visiting her husband's grave]] but also resulted in Caleb's soul being pulled from Heaven and stuck in limbo for 400 year.

* Franchise/IndianaJones was accused of robbing a grave at the banquet in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom''.

* ''Series/NightGallery'' episode "Deliveries in the Rear". A doctor uses grave robbers to obtain bodies for dissection.

* ''Manga/YuGiOh'': Dark Bakura's past self in Ancient Egypt. Some justification in that his start was robbing from the evil kings who sacrifice his village for dark magic. Besides, he was also the self-pronounced "Thief King", and generally believed that it was within his right to steal whatever he wanted.

** The antiheroes of "The Hound" are a pair of ghoulish guys who rob graves for fun. This attracts the ire of the [[{{hellhound}} title character]].
** The actual Ghouls in ''Literature/PickmansModel'' (and to a lesser extent, ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'') rob graves for food.
** Literature/HerbertWestReanimator frequently resorts to this in order to acquire subjects for his experiments.

* In Creator/MarkTwain's ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer'', this is what Dr. Robinson, Injun Joe, and Muff Potter are doing in the graveyard (presumably for medical research, as the ringleader is a doctor) until Joe murders Robinson and frames Muff.

* In ''Literature/TheBible'', Mary Magdalene believes this is what happened to Jesus' body until she [[BackFromTheDead finds proof otherwise]]. Also the Romans, anticipating this possibility, put some serious security on Jesus's tomb: blocked it with a heavy stone, put a seal on that (breaking the seal alone was a serious offense), and posted guards. All that still didn't keep him inside.
* In ''Literature/TheBlackThiefAndTheKnightOfTheGlen'', one of the thief's story is about his robbing a grave.
* The resurrectionist trade is also the subject of Creator/RobertLouisStevenson's 1884 horror short story "The Body Snatcher", the basis of the above-mentioned movie of the same name.

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian story ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon'', necessary to revive the BigBad.
* In ''[[Literature/DoctrineOfLabyrinths The Doctrine of Labyrinths]]'', resurrectionists have their own WeirdTradeUnion in the city of Melusine.

* In ''Manhua/HitoriNoShitaTheOutcast'', the plot is sparked by an act of grave robbery. Protagonist Chou Soran's grandfather's corpse is stolen.

* During [[ArcVillain Jschlatt's]] [[TheFunInFuneral funeral]] on the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'', just to drive home the fact that the man had a ZeroPercentApprovalRating, the members of the server showed their LastDisrespects to the former President/Emperor of Manburg by, among ''other things'', robbing his coffin[[note]]From the meta, all of his body parts were just renamed items, since bodies disappear after death immediately in Minecraft[[/note]]. Tommy and Tubbo played with his bones, Puffy sold his remains at the Targay, her renovated Target store, and Quackity took his heart and ''[[BlackComedyCannibalism ate it]]'', then stole the remaining bones from his grave to try to resurrect him as a political puppet.

* ''ComicStrip/ScaryGary'': When Gary’s henchman Leopold talks with Dr.Frankenstein’s henchman Egor about their respective bosses over drinks at a bar, Egor mentions that Dr.Frankenstein makes him rob graves every night.

-->'''Marina DeSirrus <Thief of the Dead>''': Adventurers are such hypocrites! Like YOU just FOUND your weapon on the side of the road!

* You can find a band of gravediggers in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' in Duskwood. If you listen to them talk long enough they complain about how it's okay for adventurers to loot corpses (that they made) while they're abhorrent for doing it to corpses that have been sitting around rotting for a while.

** H. H. Holmes, America's first (known) serial killer and a failed physician, may have begun murdering just so he could sell the bodies to anatomy departments at the colleges he'd attended.

** Not just Scotland, the practice was common in many countries. "Doctor riots", mobs beating up medical professionals after a grave had been found desecrated, occurred in several US cities in the nineteenth century. Scotland is most famous because of those jolly chaps [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Hare_murders William Burke and William Hare]] who realised that waiting for bodies to be buried, then digging them up took longer than making fresh bodies out of unsuspecting boarders. They then sold the corpses to Dr. Robert Knox for anatomy classes with no questions asked. ''Series/HorribleHistories'' has a hilarious sketch about this. "Burke and Hare had murdered them, that was plain to see, then brought their bodies to my lab and pocketed the fee!" Children soon began to sing an eerie rhyme in the streets, "Up the close and doon the stair, But and ben' wi' Burke and Hare. Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief, Knox is the boy that buys the beef." The act of murdering a person (normally via [[VorpalPillow smothering]] so as minimize damage to the body) for the purpose of selling their corpse for dissection became known as "Burking". [[LaserGuidedKarma Burke was ultimately executed for the murders and himself dissected]], while [[KarmaHoudini Hare got off scot-free by testifying against Burke]]. A few years later, another gang of body snatchers decided Burke had been onto a good idea went on their own murder spree to sell corpses to anatomists. They were known as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Burkers London Burkers]].

* During ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', Project Cadmus steals Superman's body after his funeral with the intent of cloning him. A little bit later on, the Eradicator does the same thing when he tries to claim Superman's body and can only create a facsimile.

* In ''ComicBook/TheGoon'' (from one of the same writers as ''Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?'', above) the Zombie Priest, an evil {{necromancer}}, is in constant need of fresh bodies to recruit into his gang. To this end, he hires a broke gravedigger named Houstus [[StephenUlyssesPerhero Graves]] to supply him with the recently deceased. The evil of Houstus' involvement in this scheme corrupts his wife's pregnancy, [[DeathByChildbirth killing her]] and causing their twin sons to grow up to be a pair of {{Sackhead Slasher}}s.
** There's also the CreepyGood character The Buzzard, a sort of "reverse zombie" - [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier a living man who must feed on the flesh of the dead]]. He's been known to break into the occasional grave for a snack.

* In the '70s, DC had a short-lived comic called ''Plop!'', in which a crew of ghoulish-looking folks present stories, each with a KarmicTwistEnding. In one, a kindly old man is actually a secret grave robber who visits funerals only to inventory the jewelry of the deceased. But when the doctor tells him his time is coming, he's frantic to avoid the same treatment at the hands of his apprentice. So he stipulates that he be buried only in everyday clothes. Alas, he forgot that a dentist who believed the man's public image had given him a free overhaul. And in the last scene, the apprentice is happily bashing out the gold teeth from the old man's corpse.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': The Hand was brazen enough to dig up {{Doctor Octopus}}'s corpse from a public cemetery in ''broad daylight'' in order to enact the evil ritual that restored him to life. As one might expect, Peter and Mary Jane were rather shaken about it after seeing it on the news.
* Used for a StealthPun[=/=][[TheCameo Cameo]] in Creator/DanAbnett and Andy Lanning's Creator/DCComics {{Elseworld}} ''The Superman Monster'', which combines the Franchise/{{Superman}} mythos with ''Franchise/{{Frankenstein}}''. MadScientist Victor Luthor is provided with corpses by a resurrectionist who is clearly this universe's counterpart of Mitch Shelley, the ComicBook/ResurrectionMan.
* The clone of the ComicBook/RedSkull that debuts in ''ComicBook/UncannyAvengers'' demonstrates that he is every bit as vile as his source material when he steals Professor Xavier's body and ''rips out his brain'' so he can steal Xavier's PsychicPowers.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: A mummy whose tomb ComicBook/{{Etta|Candy}}, Bobby, and Glamora are exploring alongside one of their professors accuses them of being grave robbers before attacking them and doesn't see how the distinction between robber and archeologist is anything more than pedantic.

* In ''VideoGame/LuckBeALandLord'', Hooligans destroy Urns, Big Urns, and Tombs to release Spirits that give out 6 coins for 4 spins before disappearing.

* In ''VideoGame/LuckBeALandLord'', Hooligans destroy Urns, Big Urns, and Tombs to release Spirits that give 6 coins for 4 spins before disappearing.

%%* One of the Imperial City sidequests in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' sees you investigating a trader who sells stuff at ridiculously low prices. It turns out, his "goods" were actually supplied by the local gravedigger gang.%%That's RobbingTheDead%%

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' allows players with a shovel to dig up graves. Beyond an odd few sidequest important ones, they give you the "gravedigger" reputation (bad).

* ''{{VideoGame/Pharaoh}}'': Once burial goods have been placed in a tomb, unsafe areas of a city will spawn grave robbers, who will head straight to the grave in order to plunder it. Unlike regular thieves who will drain the city coffers, the grave robbers only take things that were already accounted for and in small quantities, so there's no major inconvenience... except that the afterlife being the SeriousBusiness that it is, your Kingdom Rating takes a hit if a grave robber gets through.

In some cases, TheUndead, corpses BackFromTheDead are the properties themselves. {{Necromancer}}s are prone to be repeat offenders of this.

This is often part of TheIgor's job description. This is the primary way of encountering a {{Mummy}}.

If they happened to have fought aliens and/or monsters before taking the crypt's stuff, it probably counts as {{Plunder}}.

'''Do not confuse with RobbingTheDead, which is the taking of personal belongings from a corpse.''' It should be noted, however, that the term "grave robbing" is used to refer to both tropes.