itm without playing most of the game

Is it possible to itm without playing? I was playing $2.2 sng 9 people and I was dealt pocket Aces first hand. I just went all in. Someone with K 4 called and I doubled up easily. After that, my friend told me to come out of my house for a second and told me to transfer some files from my external hard drive to his computer. After this, he treated me simple fast food lunch and I came back about 40 minutes later. I found out I was blinded out but I got 3rd place. I dunno how that happened. I'm assuming that if you can just fold every hand and then just go all in everytime you have only premium hand, u can itm every tourney. Has anyone done this before? I think this method is possible in microstakes because people play many hands, go crazy, and lose quickly.

It is possible, because I have done it in the monthly Titan $1,000 freeroll before now...

Yes i believe it is very possible to do it in mircoblinds or small entry tournaments for the main fact that people do not really care about these tourneys in the first place and move their chips around.

Freerolls and tourneys, yes. Provided you have built up a decent stack you can auto-fold your way into the money. A lot of pro's will be virtual sit-outs in big games when they have a healthy enough lead, just playing premium hands. (obviously some pro's will use the big stack to bully small stacks- risky but it can pay off!) The party poker $300 freeroll is easy. One double up will see you through to the cash (ok, only 7c or something!)
SnG's, not really. You have to be on a table of real idiots for them not to notice there is a sit-out, and if thats the case, when it gets down to 4 players they can all pass the blinds around until the sit-outs gone. The only exception would be if 2 players had unfoldable monsters. AA v KK perhaps.

double up early and make a healthy stack and in sngs you can make it to the money30% of the time i,d say but sitting out id say 5 % or less. as for pros sitting out when they make a healthy stack ,i disagree as "pros" probably wont bother with little freerolls. bullyin with a big stack is a common good strategy used by decent mtt players , good tourney strategy is to start tight ,then loosen up as the blinds increase ,i see lots of sit outs over the years and it irritates me when they think they can stay out of the game and still cash,of course it does work from time to time ,but as a valid way to play i would seriously advise against . i mean you either play poker or not . my missus starts a freeroll about the time we take the dog for a walk ,it takes 20 mins or so and when we return she has lost maybe 300 chips which she will often win back quite quickly ,she often cashes in these freerolls . but yes it happens people sit out and cash , but as a serious strategy (your not serious about doing this !are you?) play only premium cards only! sure! but sit out and hope to cash is madness, unless you dont actually like poker and just want the money.

It could work if the people you are playing are not observant at all. I know if I saw someone doing this, then I don't care what the guy has, I wouldn't call anything from him if he went into the pot after sitting out for 45 hands. Therefore, because no one is calling those premium hands that you are getting, you are not making anything but the blinds and are still going to get blinded out eventually. Your best bet would be that the rest of the table was eaten up by the better players at the table before you got completely blinded out.