History Main / RobbingTheDead

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': Used in an unconventional way in "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS2E3 Dead Man's Eleven]]". The couple that witnessed the death of the Cavendish's first housekeeper, instead of reporting the death, immediately went to break into her house and rob some rare coins they knew she had - reasoning that since she was dead, it was no longer stealing. To avoid further unnecessary questions they kept quiet about most of what they say - ''despite'' having seen the person who murdered her. This inaction meant the murder went listed as a suicide for over a year, indirectly allowing the current murders to take place as well. Barnaby is ''furious'' when he finds out and has them arrested on the spot.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': The episode "Mean" features three mean girls killing a member of their GirlPosse. The [[BetaBitch Beta Bitches]] claim to be [[GuiltRiddenAccomplice Guilt Ridden Accomplices]] and that they only went along with the murder because they were under the control of the AlphaBitch (and had no free will[[note]]To quote ADA Novak, "I've seen this movie it's the one with the zombies right?"[[/note]]) This ''might'' have been able to work...until Casey proved (with the one of the girls on the stand no less) that they all looted they body afterwords. The jury convicts them in 15 minutes.
-->"If you felt so bad about what happened then why are you wearing a dead girl's ring?"

* The topic of ''The Hound'' by {{Creator/HP Lovecraft}}: two self-described ghouls remove an amulet from an infamous grave. The amulet's owner is less than happy about this.

* During Joshua's journey in ''Literature/TheLongEarth'', he encounters the ruins of a long-dead race. The only artifact he's able to find and retrieve (without going near the giant radioactive pile that is the main structure) is a sapphire ring on a corpse. Said ring turns out to be a [[ChekhovsGun vital key in the sequel]].

* ''Film/JonahHex''. Someone tries to snipe Hex from a bell tower but Hex guns him down, causing his body to fall off the roof. Hex aims his pistol when another man rushes towards him, but he's only interested in stealing the dead man's boots. Then a third man takes a shot at Hex and misses, [[BlackComedy only to hit the corpse robber instead.]]

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'': As sneaking through the tunnels spreading beneath Spiral Castle, Taran and Eilonwy find a barrow: a bunch of dead armored warriors guarding a figure lying on a central stone slab. Since they need weapons, Taran snatches a sword from a corpse's hand, and Eilonwy grabs the sword of the dead man on the slab. Almost right away, the whole castle starts shaking and crumbling down.

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': It's well established that Frank will usually take weapons and cash from the criminals he kills (particularly if it's large drug deal where there's a considerable amount of cash). Frank doesn't have a regular job and he's not independently wealthy. Ammunition costs money and he has to eat. He even had a PetTheDog moment where he left took money from a crime boss he killed and left it to three neighbors who'd befriended him.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOBlivion Oblivion]]'': One quest involves tracking a new shopkeeper's suspiciously low-priced merchandise back to its source, a pair of ruffians who steal the goods from graves. SeriousBusiness, since they fight to the death rather than let you turn them in, and the shopkeeper is horrified when he learns the truth.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Dead Man's Shoes". A derelict steals a pair of shoes from a corpse. The shoes give him the personality of the dead man while he's wearing them.

** The Park Warden who found the VictimOfTheWeek in “Blue” decided to pinch his wallet and phone off his body and then tried to use the stolen debit card to feed her gambling addiction.

* In the beginning of the kung-fu comedy, ''Film/MillionairesExpress'', the protagonist attempts to [[RobbingTheDead steal from the corpses of several supposedly dead Russian soldiers]], only for a trumpet blare to reveal the "dead" Russians to be alive and in the middle of a military drill. Cue OhCrap from the protagonist.

* ''Gomorra - La serie''. Don Pietro beats to death a man he (incorrectly) thinks is an informant, then helps himself to his jacket to replace his own blood-splattered clothes. This backfires later when he's searched by police and arrested because they find a baggie of cocaine in an inside pocket of the jacket, that Don Pietro didn't know was there.

* One episode of ''Series/FoylesWar'' deals with the rampant looting of bombed houses during the Blitz with a group of firefighters that pick clean any houses they're called to. Although not ''all'' of their victims are dead (Sam's landlady, for instance, survives the shelling of her house and reports the missing items to Foyle) it comes off as no less disgusting. Foyle takes a certain amount of satisfaction in telling the ringleader that the law was recently revised to make it a potentially capital offense due to how loathsome and morale-destroying looters are.

* ''LetsPlay/AfterlifeSMP'':

* Scrooge is shown this in the BadFuture of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', with several people including his chambermaid taking the effects from his still-cooling body and pawning them off. This serves as another sign of his being unloved and driving him toward reform.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/BlackColossus" a thief among thieves is trying for the great treasure.

* In the ''ComicBook/SinCity'' story "The Big Fat Kill," Dwight sifts through Jackie Boy's wallet after the latter and his buddies are killed by Miho and the girls of Old Town. He finds a wad of cash (which he puts in his own pocket)...and [[spoiler:Jack's police badge]], which sets off an unholy shitstorm that makes up the rest of the story.

* Shows up in the Italian remake of ''Fanfic/BattleFantasiaProject'', with some {{Magical Girl}}s doing it. In particular, [[OriginalGeneration Star Reverie]] ''has'' to do it to eat, while veteran magical girls [[Franchise/SailorMoon Sailor Venus]] and [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Mami Tomoe]] bluntly tell their friends they'll do it with them and expect them to do the same if ''they'' fall in battle (Homura agrees).

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* Any dead body in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' can be searched for supplies, usually ammunition, money, or alcohol. Depending on John's KarmaMeter, he may jokingly pay his respects, or insult the person he killed.

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* ''Manga/OnePiece'': In preparation for the day the Nine Red Scabbards and their allies would raid Onigashima, Kawamatsu resorted to stealing swords from the graves in Ringo in order to supply the Kozuki sympathizers with weapons, an act that he admitted to find [[DueToTheDead deplorable and shameful.]] However, given that said weapons were to be used in order to dethrone [[TheCaligula Kurozumi Orochi]] and remove [[TheDreaded Kaido]] from Wano Country, Kawamatsu reasoned that it was too early for the swords of the dead to rest. Plus, since he would be keeping them in a secret storehouse while the swords were restored and maintained until the day of the Onigashima Raid, this way they could be kept safe from ''actual'' grave robbers. He was aided in this by Onimaru, the fox companion of Shimotsuki Ushimaru, who at first objected to Kawamatsu's grave-robbing by trying to bite his arm off, before changing his mind and helping him dig up the swords. After Kawamatsu was captured and imprisoned for stealing food in the Flower Capital, [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Onimaru took up Kawamatsu's alias of Gyukimaru]] to continue his work, protecting his stash of weapons while robbing passing travellers and would-be grave robbers of their own weapons in order to add to it.

* In the ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' segment "Six Feet Plunder", this occurred to the AssholeVictim, Doug, trying to rob the grave of his brother who got all the money when their parents died, and when the brother died, he left his fortune to his dog. While he was busy plundering the grave, he dug too close to the headstone, causing it to topple on him and crush him to death.

* In the ''OneThousandWaysToDie'' segment "Six Feet Plunder", this occurred to the AssholeVictim, Doug, trying to rob the grave of his brother who got all the money when their parents died, and when the brother died, he left his fortune to his dog. While he was busy plundering the grave, he dug too close to the headstone, causing it to topple on him and crush him to death.