I’ve seen a couple where the pursuee (good-guy spy betrayed by his own agency, or just average guy who’s “tradecraft” is brilliant) realizes the bad guys are tracking his phone. At which point, he tosses the phone into the back of a pickup truck, or onto a bus.
The first time I saw this, the protagonist dropped his phone into a woman’s rolling suitcase as she got on a bus. They immediately cut to the Evil Conglomerate Execs looking over the shoulders of the Evil Conglomerate IT Guys…
“He’s heading down Perimeter Street, now he’s turning onto the highway…” “He’s on the Trailways bus! Quick, he can’t get off til the next town, we can get there first!”
Cut back to Good Guy, calmly strolling down the city street… and me cheering.
Reminds me of another CSI dealbreaker cliché, maybe the biggest head-slapper they routinely committed:
“Enhance video!” (grainy security cam footage of a car parked 40 yards away is enlarged and sharpened until license plate number can be clearly read).
I think I even remember one ep where they enhanced a screen capture image of a guy wearing sunglasses until they got a recognizable view of someone’s face in the sunglasses’ lens reflection.
I’ve never watched CSI, but I’ve seen this one a lot in various cop shows. I love it when they “enhance” to the point where they can read the license plate. Yeah, right.
And of course in supernatural stories, the dog can always sense that the normal-looking person who’s just entered is actually a Demon in Human Form (or whatever).
(The cat may sense it too, but never bothers to inform its humans of this disturbing fact.)
