History Main / RansackedRoom

* Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' has an inn room ransacked by the Nazgûl, and by ransacked, I mean beds that were stabbed multiple times with {{BFS}}es. The hobbits, expecting trouble, had slept elsewhere and left bolsters in their beds.

* A grim subversion in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' -- Winston Smith puts a white grain of dust in his diary, as well as the more obvious thread. He thinks his diary's safe, but later the Thought Police inform him they replaced the dust too. [[MindScrew They may have been lying.]] ''Maybe''.

* In ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles (NES)'', the Foot Clan do this to the Turtles' apartment when they kidnap Splinter.

* Emil Karpo (a Russian cop) in Stuart A. Kaminsky's Literature/PorfiryRostnikov mysteries did that once--as well as the usual thread, he put a single hair of his across a doorway or something, which let him know the KGB had searched his room.

* ''Literature/TheMermaidChronicles'': In ''Secrets of the Deep'', Dylan gives Cordelia a magic pearl and tells her to keep it safe from the selachii. She hides it in her room. But a few weeks later she comes home to find that her room has been destroyed - her chair, pillow, and mattress have been slashed, the contents of her closet and drawers are strewn all over the floor, and her keepsake box is smashed open. Her father, who doesn't know about the pearl, is baffled that someone would do all that and not steal anything.

* ''The Dead Can Wait'' by Robert Ryan. Dr. Watson goes to the house of Franchise/SherlockHolmes after hearing he's been detained under the Defense of the Realm Act. The [=MI5=] agent with him thinks the place has been ransacked, only for Watson to say that Holmes has actually tidied up a little.

* Emil Karpo (a Russian cop) in Stuart A. Kaminsky's Russian mysteries did that once--as well as the usual thread, he put a single hair of his across a doorway or something, which let him know the KGB had searched his room.

** In ''Justice by Fire'' an IntrepidReporter finds his apartment ransacked, but fortunately they don't find the film he hid there. However the men who did it are waiting outside to kidnap him, but fortunately [[ProperlyParanoid he borrowed a shotgun from a neighbour before entering the apartment]].

* ''Literature/AbleTeam''. Carl Lyons goes to his apartment and finds the tell-tales he left outside the door (in this case the paper circles from a holepunch) have not only been moved but have disappeared completely. Fortunately, the intruder turns out to be an OldFlame ReadyForLovemaking, who removed them just to troll him.

* Literature/JamesBond's hotel room in ''Literature/CasinoRoyale'' is ransacked by {{Mooks}} looking for a cheque. They don't find it because [[spoiler:he's hidden it behind the room number -- on the ''outside'' of the door]].