History Main / UnbelievableSourcePlot

* ''{{Series/Awake}}'': Detective Michael Britten lives simultaneously in two separate realities; when he goes to sleep in one he wakes up in the other. He does not know which universe is real and which is a dream, but information he learns in one universe has strange connections to cases in the other. He cannot tell his partner or captain how he gets his information for fear he will be kicked off the force for psychological reasons.

* Inverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' Cartman gets a head injury and now thinks he's psychic, so the police want him to help solve a series of murders. Kyle, who does some independent detective work and manages to get physical evidence, finds the murderer but can't get the police to pay attention to him because he isn't psychic - so he recreates Cartman's head injury so he can pretend to also be psychic so the police will pay attention to his information.

* ''Series/{{Touch}}''. The father's autistic son communicates through numbers, and the father has to follow up on his son's prescient abilities to prevent bad things from happening, or to make good things happen. In order to accomplish this, he needs help from various contacts and allies but in order to protect his son, he has to lie to them to cover up how he knows things.

* ''Series/NewAmsterdam'': The main character is [[Really700YearsOld an immortal early American colonist]] that works as a police detective. He uses his hundreds of years of experience to solve homicides in present day New York. Everyone assumes he's a BunnyEarsLawyer since he does get the job done, they just don't know how.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'': The protagonist, having been de-aged to a child, ends up having to use a tranquilizer dart on someone and use a voice modulator to mimic them in order to convict the perpetrator. In this case, it's not just because nobody would believe that he's really a teenager, but also to keep the crime syndicate whose attempt to kill him instead resulted in said de-aging from finding out that he's still alive.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}''[='s=] Investigation Team uses a supernatural television program called the Midnight Channel to identify who the next murder victim is going to be, then hops into the TV world to rescue them by beating up the embodiment of their suppressed urges and guilt. Failure results in said embodiment killing them and hanging their corpse upside-down from a telephone pole in the real world. [[spoiler:Though, this is [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] a bit, as the culprit is ''also'' using the Midnight Channel to predict the next victim, and is being manipulated to try and protect them by putting them in the TV world.]] The protagonist has a number of opportunities to explain all of this to his uncle, a police detective, but is never believed. [[KidDetective Naoto]], too, has difficulty believing them [[spoiler:until she intentionally gets herself captured and brought inside the TV as part of a BatmanGambit.]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}''[='s=] Investigation Team uses a supernatural television program called the Midnight Channel to identify who the next murder victim is going to be, [[spoiler: (though this is [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] a bit, as the culprit is ''also'' using this to find the next victim, and is ''also'' trying to save people)]], then travels into another world inside the television to rescue them by beating up the embodiment of their negative qualities before said embodiment murders them and hangs their corpse upside-down from a telephone pole in the real world. The protagonist has a number of opportunities to explain all of this to his uncle, a police detective, but is never believed. [[KidDetective Naoto]], too, refuses to believe them [[spoiler:until she herself is captured and brought inside the TV. Then it turns out that, apparently being a complete idiot, she was kidnapped on ''purpose'' as part of a BatmanGambit, for which the rest of the team excoriates her]].

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' Cartman gets a head injury and now thinks he's psychic, so the police want him to help solve a series of murders. Stan, who does some independent detective work, finds the murderer but can't get the police to pay attention to him because he isn't psychic - so he recreates Cartman's head-bumpage so he can pretend to also be psychic so the police will pay attention to his information.