History Main / FakedKidnapping

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse:'' In "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E11FolliesAtTheCovenDayParade Follies at The Coven Day Parade]]", not only does Luz do this to Kikimora, but apparently got the idea from InUniverse book series ''The Good Witch Azura''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse:'' In [[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E11FolliesAtTheCovenDayParade Follies at The Coven Day Parade]], not only does Luz do this to Kikimora, but apparently got the idea from InUniverse book series ''The Good Witch Azura''.

--->'''Mr. Burns (Sr.):''' I should have known you would be the only one stupid enough to kidnap yourself!

* The second episode of ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' has him solve the kidnapping of the daughter of a bigshot company-president which starts OUT as a FakedKidnapping designed to make her overworked father spend more time with her (she even got the good-natured [[TheButlerDidIt Butler]] to help), but turns real when an actual criminal kidnaps him from the family restaurant where she'd been waiting out the fake kidnapping. It's up to Conan to save the day!

* Discussed in ''VideoGame/HiddenCity'' when Sophia Haze disappears, causing a public uproar. Mr. Black mentions that the Jazz singer had "disappeared" to gain attention before, but she had never missed a concert as she did recently, which is an indicator that she's in real trouble this time.

* In the Literature/NeroWolfe novel ''The Final Deduction'', the husband in a wealthy family is kidnapped and the wife hires Wolfe to facilitate the ransom. When the husband is returned unharmed, Archie suspects that he staged his own kidnapping. Not only is this true, but the wife is his co-conspirator, for tax fraud purposes. By the time she confesses, both the husband and another confederate have been murdered.

* In the Literature/NeroWolfe novel ''The Final Deduction'', the husband in a wealthy family is kidnapped and the wife hires Wolfe to facilitate the ransom. When the husband is returned unharmed, Archie suspects that he staged his own kidnapping. [[spoiler: Not only is this true, but the wife is his co-conspirator, for tax purposes. By the time she confesses, both the husband and another confederate have been murdered.]]

* ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' has the Dude and his friend Walter Sobchak do a favor for Mr. Lebowski by solving the kidnapping of his young trophy wife following Mr. Lebowski being sent her faked toe and giving the apparent kidnappers a ransom bribe. Subverted in that the poor slut did not kidnap herself but [[spoiler: went missing for a few days while her friends sent a ransom note to take advantage of her absence]].

* A ''Comicbook/{{Batman}}'' storyline had Mr Freeze freeze the wife of a banker, and demand a sizeable ransom to defrost her safely. It turned out the whole thing was a scam by the couple, and the woman had actually commissioned an ''ice sculpture'' of herself for Freeze to display, and then fled the country before it all started.

* A ''ComicStrip/MarkTrail'' storyline had a woman supposedly held hostage by bank robbers who turned out late in the story to be part of the gang.

* Joe Bonanno, [[TheDon boss of the]] [[TheMafia Bonanno crime family from 1931 to 1968]], allegedly pulled off a phony kidnapping stunt. He did this to hide from rival bosses after they got wind of his plot to eliminate them on the Commission, the American Mafia's governing body, and [[BigBadWannabe to become the mob's overlord]]. At the same time, he was facing a subpoena from the feds, who were investigating organized crime activities in the aftermath of the Valachi hearings. He was already unpopular with his peers, as aside from the attempted putsch, some of them even wondered if he was making moves on their own territories because of his greed; even his henchmen grumbled that he spent too much time in Arizona and Canada while ignoring the family rackets in New York. On October 21, 1964, Bonanno mysteriously vanished and wasn't heard again for two years. Bonanno, in a later interview, claimed that he was kidnapped in front of his lawyer's apartment at Park Avenue and was held captive in upstate New York by his cousin, Stefano Magaddino, boss of the Buffalo mob at the time. After Bonanno mysteriously vanished, the Commission named one of his capos, Gaspar [=DiGregorio=], as successor, but this didn't bode well with Bonanno's son Bill, who was TheConsigliere. This triggered an internal MobWar called the Banana Split (so-called because of Bonanno's nickname, [[EmbarassingNickname to which he despised]]), but little to no action took place until a sitdown between the two factions in 1966 turned out to be an attempted hit on Bill; [=DiGregorio=] was rebuked for this and was permanently shelved. The attempted hit also forced Bonanno to come out of hiding in May 1966, when he showed up mysteriously at Foley Square, claiming he was grabbed on the street by Magaddino's men. He was indicted for failing to appear before the grand jury but challenged it for five years until it was dismissed in 1971. The shootings intensified, and it would go on until Bonanno suffered a heart attack in mid-1968 and was forced to step down and move to Arizona, naming another of his capos, Paul Sciacca, as his successor. Although his kidnapping is now part of Mafia lore, it is certainly BlatantLies as bosses such as Sam "the Plumber" [=DeCavalcante=], Raymond Patriarca, Tony Accardo, and Angelo Bruno were unaware of Bonanno's kidnapping stunt, while his henchmen complained that he went AWOL and didn't care about them.

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', [[BigBad Master Xehanort]] pretends to have been captured by [[TheManBehindTheMan Braig]] (later known as Xigbar) to lure [[AntiHero Terra]] into using his Darkness. While it ends in success, this unfortunately results in Braig losing his right eye, forcing him to wear an [[EyepatchOfPower eyepatch]] indefinitely. Braig does ''not'' take this well, [[ILied as Xehanort promised he wouldn't get hurt]].
* Played straight at least once in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. The process isn't fake, but being that it's an arranged kidnapping, it qualifies.

* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankSizeMatters'', [[{{TheDragon}} Luna]] fakes "her" own kidnapping so that "she" can lure [[TheHero Ratchet]] into "her" trap. It works.

* The second episode of ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' has him solve the kidnapping of the daughter of a bigshot company-president which starts OUT as a FakedKidnapping designed to make her overworked father spend more time with her (she even got the good-natured [[TheButlerDidIt Butler]] to help), but turns real when an actual criminal kidnaps he from the family restaurant where she'd been waiting out the fake kidnapping. It's up to Conan to save the day!
* ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' plays with this trope in one case. Reika Hayami was kidnapped by a "Clown Puppet" along with her manager. [[spoiler:Unbeknownst to her, the manager, with a help from an accomplice, plotted the whole thing to make Reika break ties with a head of film production company she was currently in (thus cancelling adoption process the two of them planned).]] Later subverted because [[spoiler:it was actually the accomplice's plan as a cover [[AlwaysMurder to kill the manager]]]].

* This is the main plot synopsis of the film ''[[Film/HorribleBosses Horrible Bosses 2]]''. But at first, it was supposed to be a ''real'' kidnapping since [[spoiler: Nick, Kurt and Dale]] actually did plan on using Rex as hostage to get a $500,000 ransom. Rex fell in love with the idea of extorting money, so he added another 0 to the ransom's digits.
* In ''Film/TakeMe'', Ray runs a business where he simulates kidnapping experiences for clients. Generally, it seems he makes arrangements with the parties in question that no one knows that they've been "kidnapped" during the eight hour experience. Then, he takes a job that lasts all weekend, and the police show up...
* ''Film/YearOfTheGun'' (1991). A left wing sympathizer who's the son of a wealthy businessman allows himself to be kidnapped by the Red Brigades. Unfortunately after they stuff him in the trunk, he's killed by a carbon monoxide leak. So the Red Brigade pretend they executed him.

* ''Literature/AbleTeam''. When Carl Lyons is captured in Guatemala, the rest of Able Team follow a lead that there's an American being held hostage. He turns out to be a PoorLittleRichKid who arranged his own kidnapping, gets shot when he reaches for a gun, and then moans that his cheapsake father sent them instead of paying up. Able Team just walk out and leave him there, telling their informant that he won't be getting his reward money as it was the wrong man.

* In the ''Series/JonathanCreek'' episode "Angel Hair", a woman dating a married man seemingly drops a videotape of her being kidnapped, when she obviously hasn't been, apparently having intended to stage her kidnapping later. [[spoiler: Except it was a fake fake kidnapping, the man's wife had hooked the TV up to a live feed of the victim in a van in genuine distress, "found" the tape, and then recorded the feed while supposedly watching the tape. Unfortunately, the kidnappers got a bit carried away, leading to a continuity error when they cut off ''all'' her hair, thereby creating a mystery that led to the husband getting Jonathan involved.]]

* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized," actress Sally Larkin, going through a bitter divorce, decides to kill her husband for his money, . To do so, she goes to a jewelry store to try selling some jewelry. Before she leaves, she stops and pretends to look out the window, petrified, as if she saw her husband. Covering her head with her purse, she runs back to her sports car in the rain. There, she plants evidence, like a fingernail and a piece of her coat, to make it look like she was abducted and dragged away. Sally then screams, activates the panic alarm on her car, and runs off before the store proprieters can get outside. After escaping, Sally goes to a remote cabin in the woods, and sets up evidence to make it look like her husband held her hostage: she sits on a mattress and shackles her own knees to the cabin's floorboards for most of the time to make it look like she was restrained, and she also starves herself (though keeping hydrated with water). Three days later, Sally sneaks back into her own house with a rug from the cabin. She waits for her husband to come home, and when he does, she bludgeons him with a floorboard, rolls his body up in the rug, then takes the body and rug back to the cabin in one of her husband's cars. After setting the final touches, she "reappears" by rushing out onto the road and stopping a passing car. Monk, though hypnotized, still finds evidence to prove it: [[spoiler:while Sally was hiding in the cabin, Monk, Stottlemeyer, Natalie, and Disher had gone to her house and questioned her husband. Randy passed out pieces of his homemade Disher Mint chewing gum to the others, supposed to taste like diet blueberry. But Stottlemeyer had difficulty chewing his piece and ended up spitting it out, and it landed on top of a floor vent. When Sally came back to kill her husband, she accidentally stepped the heel of her shoe in Stottlemeyer's piece of gum while wrapping the body up in the rug.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Frannie 911" Francine pretends to kidnap Roger in an attempt to prove Stan cares about him. [[PityTheKidnapper She is put through hell]] due to Roger's usual JerkAss antics and Stan doesn't seem to care, instead making extraordinary demands. Eventually he reveals that he knew it was fake all along (they have caller ID and she was calling from her cell phone) and after everything she's been through she fully understands why Stan loathes the little bastard so much.

** In "Burns Baby Burns", Mr. Burns' grown up son appears but proves to be a disappointment to his father, so he recruits Homer to fake his own kidnapping.

* Joe Bonanno, [[TheDon boss of the]] [[TheMafia Bonanno crime family from 1931 to 1968]], allegedly pulled off a phony kidnapping stunt. He did this to hide from rival bosses after they got wind of his plot to eliminate them on the Commission, the American Mafia's governing body, and [[BigBadWannabe to become the mob's overlord]]. At the same time, he was facing a subpoena from the feds, who were investigating organized crime activities in the aftermath of the Valachi hearings. He was already unpopular with his peers, as aside from the attempted putsch, some of them even wondered if he was making moves on their own territories because of his greed; even his henchmen grumbled that he spent too much time in Arizona and Canada while ignoring the family rackets in New York. On October 21, 1964, Bonanno mysteriously vanished and wasn't heard again for two years. Bonanno, in a later interview, claimed that he was kidnapped in front of his lawyer's apartment at Park Avenue and was held captive in upstate New York by his cousin, Stefano Magaddino, boss of the Buffalo mob at the time. After Bonanno mysteriously vanished, the Commission named one of his capos, Gaspar [=DiGregorio=], as successor, but this didn't bode well with Bonanno's son Bill, who was TheConsigliere. This triggered an internal MobWar called the Banana Split (so-called because of Bonanno's nickname, [[EmbarassingNickname to which he despised]]), but little to no action took place until a sitdown between the two factions in 1966 turned out to be an attempted hit on Bill; [=DiGregorio=] was rebuked for this and was permanently shelved. The attempted hit also forced Bonanno to come out of hiding in May 1966, when he showed up mysteriously at Foley Square, claiming he was grabbed on the street by Magaddino's men. He was indicted for failing to appear before the grand jury, but challenged it for five years until it was dismissed in 1971. The shootings intensified, and it would go on until Bonanno suffered a heart attack in mid-1968 and was forced to step down and move to Arizona, naming another of his capos, Paul Sciacca, as his successor. Although his kidnapping is now part of Mafia lore, it is certainly BlatantLies as bosses such as Sam "the Plumber" [=DeCavalcante=], Raymond Patriarca, Tony Accardo and Angelo Bruno were unaware of Bonanno's kidnapping stunt, while his henchmen complained that he went AWOL and didn't care about them.

* A ''Comicbok/{{Batman}}'' storyline had Mr Freeze freeze the wife of a banker, and demand a sizeable ransom to defrost her safely. It turned out the whole thing was a scam by the couple, and the woman had actually commissioned an ''ice sculpture'' of herself for Freeze to display, and then fled the country before it all started.

* In ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'', the dogs take back Oliver, thinking he had been captured, when in fact he had been adopted by LonelyRichKid Penny. When Fagin sees the direction in the collar, he sends a ransom note there in order to pay off Sykes. He changes his mind when Penny arrives with her piggy bank, and simply gives Oliver back. This is followed by the all-too-real kidnapping of Penny by Sykes.

* It's actually possible to ''pay'' people to kidnap you as part of a service (usually as part of a fetish and/or finding the idea of being rescued by your boyfriend (or girlfriend, for that matter) to be romantic. It's usually legal as long no one gets put in any real danger and the "abductee" doesn't report themselves missing (as that would be falsely reporting a crime.)

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* ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'': Maria Louise does this with the help of Domon in order for the latter to fight George de Sand. However, George later reveals he knew about that anyways.

* ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' plays with this trope in one case. Reika Hayami was kidnapped by a "Clown Puppet" along with her manager. [[spoiler:Unbeknownst to her, the manager, with a help from an accomplice, plotted the whole thing to make Reika break ties with a head of film production company she was currently in (thus cancelling adoption process the two of them planned).]] Later subverted because [[spoiler:it was actually the accomplice's plan as a cover [[AlwaysMurder to kill the manager]]]].

* Martineau of ''ComicBook/{{Copperhead}}'' plays this by claiming to be taken hostage by Clay, acting as his human shield until they make it to a getaway vehicle.

* In ''WesternAnimation/KimPossibleMovieSoTheDrama'', Kim's abusive boyfriend Eric stages his own kidnapping to lure her into a trap, as [[spoiler:he's really a cold-hearted synthodrone created by Drakken]].

* At the end of ''Film/TheBigRestaurant'', it turns out President Novales did it.
* ''Year of the Gun'' (1991). A left wing sympathizer who's the son of a wealthy businessman allows himself to be kidnapped by the Red Brigades. Unfortunately after they stuff him in the trunk, he's killed by a carbon monoxide leak. So the Red Brigade pretend they executed him.

* There's an Creator/ElleryQueen short story where a child faked his own kidnapping to get his estranged parents back together. It worked.
* In ''[[Literature/GarrettPI Bitter Gold Hearts]]'', Karl Jr.'s kidnapping looks suspiciously like this trope to Garrett when he first starts investigating it. [[spoiler: It's a subversion: a fake kidnapping that ''turned'' real when his accomplices got scared and/or creative.]]
* In a variant from the [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] short story "A Restoration Of Faith", some Jerkass parents hire him to find their runaway daughter, but then turn around and tell the police that he kidnapped her, thinking to stiff him on the bill ''and'' get a juicy sob-story out of the incident, rather than let anyone know their own kid can't stand them.
* The ''Literature/AToZMysteries'' book "The Absent Author" revolves around the kidnapping of the eponymous mystery author. Turns out the whole thing was a hoax in order for the author to investigate how real kids solve mysteries.

* ''Mathnet'' (a segment on ''Series/SquareOneTV'' parodying ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}''): An aging diva fakes a kidnapping by an up and coming ingenue in order to revive her career. Unfortunately for the diva, the ingenue (named [[Film/AllAboutEve Eve]]) happens to be a friend of Kate Monday of the Mathnet squad.
* There is an episode of ''Series/{{Yeralash}}'', where a boy calls his little sister at home, and says (changing his voice), that the boy was kidnapped by a band. The girl, after inquiring whether he's hidden and tied up securely, asks that they don't release him until she eats all of the cake their grandma baked. The boy replies "your brother managed to escape after all, the rogue", and runs home to get his share.
* The pilot episode of ''Series/{{Psych}}'' had this as the solution of Shawn's first case. The rich kid ran away and sent his own ransom notice, the dad found out, accidentally killed him in an argument, killed the kid's friend for witnessing it, and made it look like a murder/suicide.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Kojak}}'' had a variation: The kidnapping was real but a friend of the parents' offered to pay up the ransom: It was actually a ploy by him to pay off a debt to the mob without being suspected. Things go sour when the girl sees the face of one of the goons, who then decides to kill her.

* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized," actress Sally Larkin, going through a bitter divorce, decides to kill her husband for his money, . To do so, she goes to a jewelry store to try selling some jewelry. Before she leaves, she stops and pretends to look out the window, petrified, as if she saw her husband. Covering her head with her purse, she runs back to her sports car in the rain. There, she plants evidence, like a fingernail and a piece of her coat, to make it look like she was abducted and dragged away. Sally then screams, activates the panic alarm on her car, and runs off before the store proprieters can get outside. After escaping, Sally goes to a remote cabin in the woods, and sets up evidence to make it look like her husband held her hostage: she sits on a mattress and shackles her own knees to the cabin's floorboards for most of the time to make it look like she was restrained, and she also starves herself (though keeping hydrated with water). Three days later, Sally sneaks back into her own house with a rug from the cabin. She waits for her husband to come home, and when he does, she bludgeons him with a floorboard, rolls his body up in the rug, then takes the body and rug back to the cabin in one of her husband's cars. After setting the final touches, she "reappears" by rushing out onto the road and stopping a passing car. Monk, though hypnotized, still finds evidence to prove it: [[spoiler:while Sally was hiding in the cabin, Monk, Stottlemeyer, Natalie, and Disher had gone to her house and questioned her husband. Randy passed out pieces of his homemade Disher Mint chewing gum to the others, supposed to taste like diet blueberry. But Stottlemeyer had difficulty chewing his piece and ended up spitting it out, and it landed on top of a floor vent. When Sally came back to kill her husband, she accidentally stepped the heel of her shoe in Stottlemeyer's piece of gum while wrapping the body up in the rug.]]
* In the ''Series/JonathanCreek'' episode "Angel Hair", a woman dating a married man seemingly drops a videotape of her being kidnapped, when she obviously hasn't been, apparently having intended to stage her kidnapping later. [[spoiler: Except it was a fake fake kidnapping, the man's wife had hooked the TV up to a live feed of the victim in a van in genuine distress, "found" the tape, and then recorded the feed while supposedly watching the tape. Unfortunately, the kidnappers got a bit carried away, leading to a continuity error when they cut off ''all'' her hair, thereby creating a mystery that led to the husband getting Jonathan involved.]]
* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': In "The Skinny According to Nick Cullhane", the VictimOfTheWeek is murdered because he has written a manuscript blowing the whistle on a fake kidnapping scam.
* ''Series/ShakespeareAndHathawayPrivateInvestigators'': In "Ill Met by Moonlight", the daughter of a local aristocrat disappears (along with a priceless heirloom necklace). Although Frank and Lou initially treat this a runaway case, the girl's bloody hoodie turns up accompanied by a ransom note demanding 50,000 pounds; leaving Frank and Lou wondering if this is a genuine kidnapping or a fake. [[spoiler:It's a fake. The girl is attempting to raise cash so she can run away and join her real father.]]
* In the ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Defiance", a foreign-exchange girl fakes her own kidnapping to try to prevent her politically powerful father from signing a treaty with America. [[spoiler:It becomes a real situation when one of her "kidnappers" kills the other one and holds her for ransom. And after she's rescued, [[KarmaHoudini she goes home scot-free]] because of "[[DiplomaticImpunity diplomatic immunity]]".]]
* ''Series/TheFBI'': In "Boomerang", Terry Shelton (Jeff Bridges), with the help of three friends, fakes his own kidnapping to sock it to his rich dad Gar (Carl Betz). The friends have other ideas, and it soon becomes a real kidnapping with a ransom demand.

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', [[BigBad Master Xehanort]] pretends to have been captured by [[TheManBehindTheMan Braig]] (later known as Xigbar) to lure [[AntiHero Terra]] into using his Darkness. While it ends in success, this unfortunately results in Braig losing his right eye, forcing him to wear an [[EyepatchOfPower eyepatch]] indefinitely. Braig does ''not'' take this well, [[ILied as Xehanort promised he wouldn't get hurt]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "Burns Baby Burns", Mr. Burns' grown up son appears but proves to be a disappointment to his father, so he recruits Homer to fake his own kidnapping.
--->'''Mr. Burns (Sr.):''' I should have known you would be the only one stupid enough to kidnap yourself!
** Bart fakes his kidnapping in order to cover up that he had sneaked out of the house to go to a rap concert.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "April Moon", an expert in cybernetic prostheses is forced to provide weaponized upgrades to a gang who is holding his wife hostage. It turns out that she is willingly cooperating with the gang and having an affair with the gang's leader. After the doctor learns this, the gang leader (who doesn't know that he knows) comes in for [[NightmareFuel more augmentation]].