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{{trope}}
[[File:Thnderbolts2 9184.jpg|thumb|376px
{{quote|'''Guard 1:''' HEY! Those are the guys that stole our uniforms!
'''Guard 2:''' And beat the shit out of us, too!
|''[[Spaceballs]]''}}
The heroes or villains need to get access to the enemy stronghold. But how? By [[Dressing as the Enemy]], of course. That still leaves the question of how to get enemy (or otherwise deceptive) uniforms. The solution to this is a time-honored technique:
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Sometimes leads to [[Not My Driver]], [[Janitor Impersonation Infiltration]], [[Delivery Guy Infiltration]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' (and the ''[[Robotech]]'' adaptation), Max pulls a random [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|Zentraedi]] into a bathroom and knocks him out to steal his uniform while trapped onboard an enemy ship. This example is notable for being done while Max is piloting a [[Humongous Mecha]].
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* In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', George has to become Bayanis so he and Paul can infiltrate the warehouse. Except that Paul had already wrapped her up in her own robes (well, she tried to order him to kill the others), so all they have to do is strip her, and John immobilizes her in warm ice.
== Film ==
* ''[[Braveheart]]'': Near the beginning of the film, Wallace steals the uniform off an English soldier in order to escape the village.
* Occurs in ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]''. The witch's guards tackle the heroes and they fall behind some rocks. After some scuffling, the heroes pop up wearing the uniforms. The uniforms do indeed fit perfectly, but the lion has a hard time hiding his tail.
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** ''[[You Only Live Twice]]''. [[James Bond]] and some imprisoned astronauts take out several SPECTRE guards and steal their uniforms.
** In ''[[The Living Daylights]]'', the Russian assassin strangles (with his earphones' cable) a milkman to steal his uniform and get into the MI-5 safehouse. The milkman isn't the enemy; he just had the right outfit.
* In ''[[The Borrowers]],''{{verify|reason=This link goes to a page about a children's book, not to a page about a film.}} a sex offender, wounded and captured by the Police, escapes from hospital by knocking out a female police officer, leaving her bound and gagged on his hospital bed, and walking out of the hospital wearing her uniform. Her entire uniform, including her underwear.
* Geena Davis did this to a nurse in ''[[Earth Girls Are Easy]]'', because she needed the nurse's uniform.
* In ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', the Joker and his goons do it to an entire police honor guard, then do a spot-on impression of the honor guard-thus smuggling seven loaded rifles right past every cop in the city and directly up to the Mayor's stage.
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* In ''[[Night Train to Munich]],'' they steal uniforms from some [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazis]] to get away
* In ''[[Get the Gringo]]'', the heroes escape from a Mexican prison at the end by posing as a group of surgeons. The real surgeons are left bound and gagged in the operating room, some stripped of their scrubs.
== Gamebooks ==▼
* It is not rare for [[Lone Wolf]] to kill some [[Evil Minions]] for clothes before sneaking into enemy strongholds. This can happen in Book 5 to a Vassagonian messenger, in Book 12 to a Drakkar horseman, in Book 13 to a Cener Druid or in Book 16 with a Disciple of Vashna. It helps that most enemies [[Mooks]] are either [[Faceless Goons]] or [[In the Hood]].▼
== Literature ==
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** In
{{quote|'''Nobby:''' Well, we could always lure some more people into this alley and try it again.
'''Colon:''' Nobby, we're alone in a foreign port, and you're dressed only in your, and I use this word with feeling, unmentionables. This is not the time to start talking about luring people into alleys. There could be talk. }}
** Done more successfully in ''[[
* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]''
** ''[[Harry Potter and
** Harry, Ron and Hermione use the same technique to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic in ''[[Harry Potter and
* In the fifth book of David Edding's ''[[Belgariad]]'', Silk knifes some mooks for their robes. One drawback of the technique is highlighted when they then have to find a way to arrange the robes so that the tears and bloodstains aren't evident.
* ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat|The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge]]''. Jim diGriz and his [[Dark Action Girl|wife Angelina]] mug two police officers for their uniforms in order to escape a dragnet, only to find that they're wearing ladies' underwear. After knocking out two more policeman Angelina suggests taking a peek at their underwear too, but Jim prefers that some illusions should remain untarnished.
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** A third case, "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man," has a mayor who poses as a guard to kill the oldest man in the world without being noticed. Of course, to gain access to the man, he had to kill one of the nursing center's real guards and steal his security pass, and possibly his uniform.
* ''[[Alcatraz (TV series)|Alcatraz]]'': In "Garrett Stillman", Stillman hijacks an armoured car and steals the guards' uniforms, leaving them in an alleyway in their underwear.
* ''[[Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries]]'': When Eugene escapes from the hospital in "Death Do Us Part", he strangles the constable assigned to guard him and steals his uniform.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
▲=== Gamebooks ===
▲* It is not rare for [[Lone Wolf]] to kill some [[Evil Minions]] for clothes before sneaking into enemy strongholds. This can happen in Book 5 to a Vassagonian messenger, in Book 12 to a Drakkar horseman, in Book 13 to a Cener Druid or in Book 16 with a Disciple of Vashna. It helps that most enemies [[Mooks]] are either [[Faceless Goons]] or [[In the Hood]].
== Video Games ==
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** The Spy can [[Dressing as the Enemy|evade German patrols by dressing as a German soldier]], and one of his options for procuring a uniform is to KO a soldier with ether and steal his uniform, leaving him [[Bound and Gagged]]; he can't mug the dead for [[Bring My Red Jacket|obvious reasons]]. On the other hand, the disguise only works on enemies who are of lower or equal rank to the uniform's original wielder, ie. a random private's uniform will hide you from other privates but not from a lieutenant.
** In ''Commandos 3'', anyone can mug enemy soldiers for uniforms. However, it only works for a limited time except for the Spy who can stay disguised indefinitely. Oh, and only the Spy can use officer uniforms but if he happens to wear one, he can ''order lower-ranked enemies around''.
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Misfile]]'' this is how non-fallen angel [[Jerkass|Cassiel]] gets into a party. Though she has to actually do the job of the person she beat up because her disguise ''worked''.
* In ''[[Errant Story]]'', Ian sucker-punches a priest and steals his robes so that he can get into a restricted library. He later [https://web.archive.org/web/20150512093820/http://www.errantstory.com/2006-02-01/469 mugs another man for his travel ticket]. He even [[
{{quote|'''Ian:''' ... and I'm mugging another old man... I really need to stop making a habit of this. At least it's not a priest this time.}}
* ''[[Bob and George]]'': [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/041003c Bass needs a disguise.]
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* Played with in ''[[PvP (webcomic)|Pv P]]''. Brent, wearing a suit, sneaks up on a janitor, intending to take his work clothes. An offscreen fight later... the janitor walks back out as if nothing happened, wearing Brent's clothes.
* [[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja|Doctor McNinja]] knocks out a regular doctor at the hospital and steals his coat and nametag in order to get in, even though he still wears his regular outfit, including his prominent mask. The receptionist is obviously not fooled but can't convince him to stop the charade. Apparently he's done this several times before.
== Western Animation ==
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* Robin from ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' does a variation of this in ''[[The Movie|Trouble in Tokyo]]''. After being falsely accused of a crime, he's being hunted by the police, and he needs a disguise. He ducks into an alleyway... and comes across [[Mugging the Monster|a guy with a gun who demands that Robin hand over his money]]. Cue [[Laser-Guided Karma]].
* [[Parodied Trope|Parodied]] in episode 11 of ''[[Harley Quinn (TV series)|Harley Quinn]]'' (the clothes ''do not'' fit the muggers). Also one of the muggers is in a wheel chair and [[Stupid Crooks|they try to stuff the wheel chair into the disguise.]]
* In ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', the protagonist does this a lot:
** In "Jack is Naked", he does it twice. After his clothes are stolen, he first steals a burglar's clothes, then a train engineer's.
** In "Jack and the Rave" he steals the clothes of one of the brainwashed dancers.
** In "Jack and the Winged Children", he kills one of Aku's demon soldiers and takes its clothes. After rescuing the fairy princess, her reaction is a clear [[Shout-Out]] to Leia's reaction to Luke in ''[[A New Hope]]''; in fact, that whole episode was loaded with ''[[Star Wars]]'' references, something the series itself is often loaded with.
== Real Life ==
* While it usually doesn't involve mugging, spy agencies often counterfeit or steal identity documents of random people as cover for their operatives.{{context|reason=Please explain how this is an example of Mugged for Disguise instead of an example of Dead Person Impersonation.}}
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209113254/http://www.thecasualtruth.com/story/mossad-and-dubai-hit-squad Mossad in particular] has really bad rep for this, having been caught in the eighties doing this and promising not to do it again, and in 2004 when they promised not to do it again, and in 2010 [[Running Gag|where they promised not to do it again.]]
* A group of inmates called the "Texas 7" escaped from a Karnes County prison by doing this. They ambushed a group of
{{reflist}}
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