History Main / RightUnderTheirNoses

* In the ''Series/{{Wishbone}}'' episode adapting "Literature/ThePurloinedLetter", the real life subplot (that always mirrors the adapted story in some way) has the dog Wishbone hide from a mob of angry people chasing him by hiding under the lap blanket of a handicapped old woman who then wheels past the mob without them paying any attention to her.

* In ''Film/TheCannonballRun'', racers J.J. and Victor sneak a their ambulance van through a police road block on the back of a "low-boy" carrier, covered only with a tarp and looking exactly like a van covered with a tarp.

* Even funnier, in ''Film/TheCannonballRun'', they sneak a known race participant (Burt and Dom's ambulance van) through a road block on the back of a "low-boy" carrier, covered only with a tarp and looking exactly like a van covered with a tarp.

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* [[spoiler:Aizen and his cronies]] in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' operated to subvert the Gotei 13 this way. He put up the act so well that the captain was the only person suspicious of him.
** Similarly, guess where the bad guys' lair was after the TimeSkip? Answer:[[spoiler:In the literal shadows of the Seireitei.]]

* Harry Ashworth in ''Fanfic/DelendaEst'' figures out a way to steal someone's wand, while they're holding it, without them even noticing it's gone. This skill comes in handy when [[spoiler:Harry steals Voldemort's wand in the middle of their duel.]]

* ''Fanfic/HarryTano'': has Ahsoka Tano be teleported from Coruscant to Privet Drive where she finds and later adopts a then 4-year old Harry Potter before running away into the night, which leads to a chain of events happening that affects the Wizarding World: namely that Sirius Black is exonerated and is made the executor of the Potter Family Estates: including a cottage located in Cornwall that he gives to Remus Lupin. Sirius then spends the next seven years searching the world for where his Godson had disappeared to. As it turned out, Ahsoka and Harry were spending those seven years living in a Cove in Cornwall: directly beneath the same Potter Estate Remus was living at; having spent all that time learning the ways of The Force and becoming urban legends for the nearby villages.

* ''Film/CarryOnSpying''. The headquarters of the evil S.T.E.N.C.H organisation is right under the headquarters of the British Secret Service where the spies started their mission. After the ElaborateUndergroundBase blows up, the heroes take the elevator to the surface and emerge from a closet in DaChief's office.

* The 1979 spy film ''Film/CharlieMuffin'' (aka ''A Deadly Game'') ends with Charlie (having betrayed British Intelligence in revenge for them setting him up to be killed) relaxing with his wife in a hotel in Brighton, England. "They'll look all over the world, but they won't look here." In the novels the movie is based on however, Charlie does eventually get caught.

* While attempting to avoid pursuit by Nazis in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', Indiana Jones and his father go through Berlin to get the journal back. They manage to [[HeyWait run into Hitler - who proceeds to write his autograph in it]]. And this is ''after'' Hitler has "declared war on the Jones boys" (as the BigBad of the film put it).
* The martial arts film ''Film/HeroesOfSung'' has the main villain, whose weapon is a flail with a claw-like tip, stealing an important MacGuffin in front of the heroes' noses. In all fairness, the heroine is mourning her recently-killed father.

** Although the biggest one, in light of the prequel trilogy, still has to be the decision to hide Luke on his father's home planet under his own name with his only known relatives. Obi-Wan was banking a lot on the idea that Vader would never want to go to Tatooine ever again[[note]]Although Vader had reason to believe that Padme died before the children were born, and wasn't actively looking[[/note]].
* The ''wuxia'' ''Film/HeroesOfSung'' revolves around a group of heroes who needs to keep a MacGuffin - an all-important Imperial seal - away from the main villain, a martial arts traitor. Nonetheless, the villain managed to snag the seal for himself with his EpicFlail, whose tip ends in a bronze claw, right in front of all three of the main protagonists! Although, in all fairness, the sole ActionGirl is actively mourning her recently dead father, and her two male compatriots are trying to console her, and the villain did the theft when all three of their backs are turned for two seconds.
* In the movie version of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers'', Pippin suggests this as reason for Treebeard to take him and Merry back towards Isengard; of course, he had other reasons for wanting Treebeard to see Isengard close-up.
-->'''Pippin:''' If we go south, we can slip past Saruman unnoticed. ''The closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm!''\\
'''Treebeard:''' That... doesn't make any sense to me! Then again... you ''are'' very small. South it is, then!
* {{Franchise/Zorro}}. Swashbucklers in general seem to be fond of this.
* At the start of ''Film/TheAssignment1997'', a disguised Carlos the Jackal recognises CIA agent Jack Shaw sitting at a Paris cafe, walks right up to him and borrows a light, then tosses a hand grenade into the café. Shaw survived, and a large part of his motivation throughout the movie is to avenge the humiliation of having missed Europe's most wanted terrorist when he was literally right under his nose.
* ''Film/RescuersStoriesOfCourage'': One of the heroes from ''Two Women'' lives just a hundred meters from a Gestapo headquarters while helping people the Nazis are chasing.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': This is explicitly how Sam and Frodo succeed (helped by Aragorn's army besieging the Black Gate at the same time, getting all the orcs out of the way). After all, who in their right mind would take the one artifact Sauron needs to rule the world right to his doorstep? Tolkien at one point tried to make up an excuse for them to sneak into [[EldritchLocation Minas Morgul]], but thought better of it.
* In ''Literature/TheSherwoodRing'', British soldier Peaceable Sherwood takes his hidden militia to crash for the winter at... the shut-up-for-the-war house of the soldier assigned to capturing him, Richard Grahame. Richard is unpleasantly surprised when he makes the mistake of coming over to the house to rummage around for a Christmas gift for his girlfriend.
* The title character of ''[[WoodenShipsAndIronMen Captain Caution]]'', an American privateer, insists he doesn't believe in taking chances. His French friend is incredulous: sailing right into a British-held port and anchoring where the fort's guns will have a perfect shot at him isn't taking chances? Of course not; since he made himself so totally vulnerable to them, the British '''know''' he can't be an American coming in to capture one of the ships already in port. And that night, he sneaks a crew aboard...
* In Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''Great War'' trilogy, a Confederate submarine commander is able to sail, unsubmerged, within sight of a Union fleet at New York City, protected only by audacity and the fact that the Confederate national flag (as opposed to the well-known battle flag) looks a lot like the Stars and Stripes from a distance.
** Turtledove has also featured Jewish characters in other series escaping persecution in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany by joining the ''Wehrmacht'' or even the SS under a false identity.
* In the first ''Literature/EnolaHolmes'' book, Enola, a runaway, is discovered by [[Franchise/SherlockHolmes her brother]]. When she shakes him again, he spends all night out scouring the city for her, but she successfully escapes by hiding in his house. (And, when she departs, she's able to use some of his disguise supplies to ensure she won't be spotted.)
* In ''Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes'', Jim and Will hide in a sewer grate not more than ten feet away from where the CircusOfFear is parading with the reasoning that the carnival folks won't think to look in so obvious a place. They still have a couple of very close calls, though, and would in fact have been discovered by the Dust Witch's SuperSenses if Will's father Charles hadn't intervened.
* In ''Literature/StarTrekVulcansHeart'', during the early stages of the revolution on Romulus, Spock proposes a plan along these lines:
-->'''Ruanek:''' Audacious, hells, yes! But how in the name of all those hells are you going to get in? Just walk right up and order the gates to open?\\
'''Spock:''' Precisely.

* In the ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' trilogy, the protagonists choose to stage their revolution right in TheEmpire's capital city. The argument is that it's the last place anyone would expect them to do it, and also that it has the most resources for their use.
* ''Snakehead'' (the seventh ''Literature/AlexRider'' book), Alex is trapped on a boat filled with guards searching for him, and it'll be hours before they reach shore and he has a chance to escape. He goes for RefugeInAudacity and spends hours hiding under the villain's bed.

** Bran and his company [[spoiler:had the same idea and]] hide from [[spoiler:Theon Greyjoy]] by doubling back and hiding [[spoiler:in the crypts under Winterfell.]]
** In ''The Princess and the Queen,'' when Rhaenyra storms King's Landing, Aegon II hides in the last place she would ever think to look: [[spoiler:in Dragonstone, ''her own home'']].
* In one book of Literature/TheBorribleTrilogy, one of the recruits for a new adventure is noted for the clever place he's made his hideout, to avoid the Borrible-hunting police: he lives in a disused basement underneath the ''police station''.
* Literature/CiaphasCain ''always'' manages to foil the enemy's application of this trope, usually by heading to the sector least likely to see action (to the confusion of the underlings, who all believe in his gung-ho '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM''' persona). This results in him stumbling on a tunnel leading to the enemy, an infiltration unit, or daemonic summoning ritual in progress, and therefore putting his life even further at risk than if he'd gone to the front line. One of his {{Mauve Shirt}}s has a similar ability, her bad luck leading to discover previously-unseen enemies or traps.
* In ''Literature/TheLastUnicorn'', King Haggard is the one responsible for the disappearance of almost all of the unicorns of the world. Schmendrick (accidentally) hides the eponymous last unicorn right in front of Haggard by disguising her as a human woman. It drives Haggard crazy for some time because he ''knows'' something isn't right about "Lady Amalthea," but he can't quite figure out ''what''.
** Haggard himself has hidden his captive unicorns in the sea just outside his castle. Even though our protagonists live as his 'guests' for several weeks (at the least), they don't notice until Haggard himself points it out.
* In his introductory story, Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat escapes a planetwide dragnet by hiding in a building just a few blocks away from where he escaped. Unfortunately the authorities quickly track him down there, because he's being pursued by the Special Corps whose agents consist of former criminals who think just like he does.
* Cassy and Emmeline escape from Simon Legree in Literature/UncleTomsCabin by running into the swamps while leaving an obvious trail, then sneaking back to the house and letting the searchers run themselves ragged looking for them. They make their true escape a couple of days later.
* ''Literature/TwentyYearsAfter'': Having escaped from Mazarin's imprisonment (with Mazarin hostage no less), d'Artagnan & co. escape to one of Porthos' castles, when they convince the Cardinal to yield to the rebellious faction's demands (which was already more or less agreed on) and a few demands the musketeers make for themselves. Then he cheerfully returns to Paris to inform the Queen of what's happening, and goes through without trouble since the guard are looking for a mounted troop sixty strong fleeing like hell away from Paris, and not a lone man going back towards Paris.
* The J.A. Johnstone western story ''Assault of the Mountain Man'' has this done ''twice'' to the murderous outlaw gang during the same train robbery. First, the messenger riding with the safe opens the safe before the outlaws reach the car and hides almost all of the money inside of it under another crate in the car, and closes the safe again with just few hundred dollars left. When the train robbers open the safe they assume that the paltry money in there is all the money in the express car. ''Then'' when they try to rob the passengers, the conductor and Julius the African-American porter have convinced all of the passengers to keep a couple dollars a piece and give the rest of of their money for Julius to hide under his shirt. Sure enough, the frustrated robbers collect almost no money from the passengers, even after searching several they are convinced have more money hidden, [[BeneathNotice all the while never bothering to search the African-American porter, who they even have following them to carry the bag collecting any money the passengers do have.]] The newspaper headlines reporting on the robbery the next day do not shy away from poking at how the robbers were fooled in this manner not once, but twice.
* Invoked in ''Literature/TheLegendOfSunKnight'', where the Sun Knight has to hide his newly-undead best friend from his fellow knights of the Holy Temple. So he hides him in the Holy Temple itself; after all, who would believe that an undead could have made it past all their defenses without raising an alarm?
* ''Gold in the Sky'', the 1958 sci-fi thriller by Alan E. Nourse. Our hero escapes the minions of an evil asteroid mining corporation by clamping himself to the outside of their spacecraft in magnetic boots. He then roams about TheMothership using AirVentInfiltration (this is before it became a DeadHorseTrope) and then belatedly realises he's been carrying the MacGuffin the villains have been searching for, [[spoiler:an alien RayGun hidden in his father's gun holster.]]
* ''Literature/AStudyInEmerald'': according to the detective, far from fleeing the country, [[spoiler:Holmes and Watson]] are currently in London itself (the Rookery specifically, where the police won't go except in huge numbers), waiting for the manhunt to die down.
* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'': At the end of "Charles Augustus Milverton", Lestrade asks for help with the case, as the criminals were almost caught. Holmes and Watson, who ''were'' those criminals, cheerfully give him a SarcasticConfession before Holmes refuses to take the case (they were present at the murder, and Holmes even identified her, but given what an utter AssholeVictim Milverton was he won't lift a finger to help catch her).

** The ruthless drug kingpin of the American southwest, Gus Fring presents himself as a simple chicken shop owner with charities going to the [=DEA=] and Gus also being a special guest to some of their functions. [[spoiler:When the truth about his true life comes out, the head of the DEA (who was a personal friend to Gus) is fired due to jeopardizing their secrets.]]

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E20WhatIsAndWhatShouldNeverBe "What Is And What Should Never Be"]], Dean takes Wishverse!Sam to the djinn's lair to confront the djinn, and at one point they are literally hiding under the djinn's nose as they hide under an open metal frame staircase as the djinn walks up the steps.
* In ''Series/HogansHeroes'', this trope is the only half-way plausible explanation of how Hogan's headquarters could stay hidden beyond manipulating Col. Klink and Sgt. Schultz. This depends heavily on the episode; in the first season especially Schultz is openly aiding them, and Klink has been heavily implied to be an Allied agent a few times.

--> "It's no good asking me. I didn't even notice when your father was on fire."

* In Series 2 of ''Series/{{Marcella}}'', [[spoiler:the SerialKiller has managed to hide the body of one of their victims inside the very police station the main character works at, by dumping it in the maintenance compartment of an elevator shaft]].

* In the ''Series/{{Wishbone}}'' episode that adapted "Literature/ThePurloinedLetter", the real life subplot (that always mirrors the adapted story in some way) had the dog Wishbone hide from a mob of angry people chasing him by hiding under the lap blanket of a handicapped old woman who then wheeled past the mob without them paying any attention to her.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'': In the modern day portions of the game, you (as the point of view character) interact with a cell of Assassins who are hiding from the international Templar manhunt targeting them. How do they hide? By working openly in the lobby of Abstergo Entertainment, a subsidiary of the very company that is the front for the Templars.
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' this is spoken word for word by The Joker, twice. [[https://youtu.be/NCYW5TmUaao Once after you fiddle with the audio log from a phone call he gives you.]] [[https://youtu.be/krigVtkYC2E The second time is remembering that as a clue to the reveal of The Joker not only still being very sick and dying but that Clayface has been masquerading as the Joker for sometime.]]

'''Ashe:''' ''(flatly)'' I noticed.
* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', if the Spy uses the [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Box Trot]] taunt, he can potentially blend in with the surroundings - the last place "normal" players think to look. What makes this tactic truly broken is that, unlike while Cloaking or Disguises, the Spy can still capture objectives in this manner or block the enemy from capturing while Boxtrotting.
* One ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper II'' level pits the Keeper against an enemy with a vastly superior subterranean fortress and army. The Keeper levels the field by stealing them piece by piece, sealing rooms away from the enemy using magically hidden doors and ambushing soldiers to [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil torture into switching sides]].
* Used in both of the first two ''VideoGame/{{Enigmatis}}'' games.
** In the first game, [[spoiler:Detective Hamilton spends ''thirty years'' in the town of Maple Creek, disguised as a secretive hermit, in order to gather intel on the BigBad]]. In this case, it's unclear whether his target is really unaware of his presence or if he's just being very studiously ignored.
** In the second game's bonus chapter, a young woman [[spoiler:skulks around the area where her companions are imprisoned]], and even tells herself that "The closer to danger, the farther from harm," reasoning that she won't be noticed because no one expects her to be there. [[spoiler:Unlike the first example, she is ''horribly'' wrong.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Ashen}}'', the entire game is spent searching for the titular being. When at last you discover its location, it turns out that [[spoiler:it's in the Wrinkled Grotto, one of the first places in the game you gain access to, and one many players might have even stumbled into by ''accident''.]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Played with in ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'', when Darth Vader [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/109.html learns]] that one downside of the Death Star's [[UnnecessarilyLargeVessel gratuitous interior space]] is that just about anybody can set up shop in it.
[[/folder]]

* A Corollary Two example in Bob Defendi's podcast audiobook ''Podcast/DeathByCliche''. It's even [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] somewhat by the main character. Given that the entire thing is a deconstruction of bad [=GM-ing=] and poor storytelling, this isn't particularly surprising.
* Inverted in ''WebVideo/VaguelyRecallingJoJo'', the villain DIO is constantly following Jotaro's group, but they don't seem to spot him until the plot calls for it.
* [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} RWBY]] antagonist Cinder Fall's way of destroying Beacon Academy? Having her and her associates (minus Torchwick) literally be contestants in the Vytal Festival as foreign academy students, this helps her plan everything else up to the end of Volume 3.
* During a video of ''WebVideo/{{Muselk}}'' playing ''VideoGame/PropHunt'' in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', Muselk encounters a teammate named Publo who should have been turned into an object to hide from the enemy team, but instead has been turned into a Pyro. Muselk concludes that this is the single worst disguise in all of Prop Hunt, and assumes that Publo is standing in the open because he has accepted his doom. A few minutes later, Muselk notices that ''every enemy has failed to notice Publo'', because they're ''too'' focused on looking for players disguised as objects and hiding, and thus Publo is the only player who doesn't get found.

* The J.A. Johnstone western story ''Assault of the Mountain Man'' has this done ''twice'' to the murderous outlaw gang during the same train robbery. First, the messenger riding with the safe opens the safe before the outlaws reach the car and hides almost all of the money inside of it under another crate in the car, and closes the safe again with just few hundred dollars left. When the train robbers open the safe they assume that the paltry money in there is all the money in the express car. ''Then'' when they try to rob the passengers, the conductor and Julius the African-American porter have convinced all of the passengers to keep a couple dollars a piece and give all of there money for Julius to hide under his shirt. Sure enough, the frustrated robbers collect almost no money from the passengers, even after searching several they are convinced have more money hidden, [[BeneathNotice all the while never bothering to search the African-American porter, who they even have following them to carry the bag collecting any money the passengers do have.]] The newspaper headlines reporting on the robbery the next day do not shy away from poking at how the robbers were fooled in this manner not once, but twice.

** Similarly, guess where the bad guys' lair was after the TimeSkip? Answer:[[spoiler:In the literal shadows of the Seritei.]]

** In Season 1, tt is revealed that the Hellmouth is in fact located directly underneath the library where Buffy and the [[InSeriesNickname Scoobie Gang]] hang out and make their plans to stop the bad guys' plans. Given that [[BigBad The Master]] was trapped in the Hellmouth for all of the first season, it is thus implied that the ''Big Bad'' had been hiding under the ''heroes''' noses the whole time, though it's unclear if he's aware of the fact.
** In Season 5, Glory ''looks'' like a regular human (albeit with super strength), so she can walk around in public without anyone suspecting anything, even buying magic artifacts from The Magic Box while the Scoobies are there, trying to research her.

* {{Inverted}} in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': It is revealed that the Hellmouth is in fact located directly underneath the library where Buffy and the [[InSeriesNickname Scoobie Gang]] hang out and make their plans to stop the bad guys' plans. Given that [[BigBad The Master]] was trapped in the Hellmouth for all of the first season, it is thus implied that the ''Big Bad'' had been hiding under the ''heroes''' noses the whole time, though it never seems like he's aware of the fact.

Compare HiddenInPlainSight. See also WalkIntoMordor, WeNeedADistraction, ThrowingTheDistraction, SoMuchForStealth.

-> ''"The closer we are to danger, the further we are from harm."''
-->-- '''Pippin''', ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers''

[[/folder]]

[-[[caption-width-right:350:[[http://noukah.deviantart.com/art/Sketch-Is-there-a-spy-among-us-364310962 Image]] by [[http://noukah.deviantart.com/ Andrea Femerstrand]].]]-]

* [[spoiler: Aizen and his cronies]] in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' operated to subvert the Gotei 13 this way. He put up the act so well that the captain was the only person suspicious of him.
** Similarly, guess where the bad guys' lair was after the TimeSkip? Answer:[[spoiler: In the literal shadows of the Seritei.]]

* Harry Ashworth in ''Fanfic/DelendaEst'' figures out a way to steal someone's wand, while they're holding it, without them even noticing it's gone. This skill comes in handy when [[spoiler: Harry steals Voldemort's wand in the middle of their duel.]]

* Sultan Mehmed, Vlad Tepes' Islamic enemy in ''Literature/CountAndCountess'', easily evades all of Vlad's military plans just by hiding out in a church town in the middle of Romania. [[spoiler: Vlad does catch up with him in the end.]]

** Bran and his company [[spoiler: had the same idea and]] hide from [[spoiler: Theon Greyjoy]] by doubling back and hiding [[spoiler: in the crypts under Winterfell.]]
** In ''The Princess and the Queen,'' when Rhaenyra storms King's Landing, Aegon II hides in the last place she would ever think to look: [[spoiler: in Dragonstone, ''her own home'']].

** The ruthless drug kingpin of the American southwest, Gus Fring presents himself as a simple chicken shop owner with charities going to the [=DEA=] and Gus also being a special guest to some of their functions. [[spoiler: When the truth about his true life comes out, the head of the DEA (who was a personal friend to Gus) is fired due to jeopardizing their secrets.]]
** Similarly, Hank devotes most of his on-screen career and resources into busting Heisenberg, the new and upcoming meth cook who puts out one of the purest and addictive batch of meth ever, who grows more dangerous and ambitious every day. Little does he know that Heisenberg is none other than ''his own'' brother-in-law, VillainProtagonist Walter White, with Walt specifically using his connections to stay two steps ahead in the Heisenberg case, though it's more UnderestimatingBadassery in Hank's case. [[spoiler: When Walt slips up and Hank accidentally discovers his secret, he's understandably heart-broken and utterly furious upon being duped by a close family member for so long.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Ashen}}'', the entire game is spent searching for the titular being. When at last you discover its location, it turns out that [[spoiler: it's in the Wrinkled Grotto, one of the first places in the game you gain access to, and one many players might have even stumbled into by ''accident''.]]

* In ''Literature/TheLastUnicorn'', King Haggard is the one responsible for the disappearance of all but one of the unicorns of the world. Schmendrick hides the eponymous last unicorn right in front of Haggard by disguising her as a human woman. It drives Haggard crazy because he ''knows'' something isn't right about "Lady Amalthea," but he can't quite figure out ''what''.

[[folder:Film]]

* [[spoiler: Aizen and his cronies]] in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' operated to subvert the Gotei 13 this way. He put up the act so well that only the captain was the only person suspicious of him.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]