take somebody by surprise
catch somebody by surprise

After waiting so long, the answer caught her by surprise.

The story caught everyone, the news services included, by surprise.

They caught you by surprise, sure, but the training shows.

Caught by surprise - when was he ever going to learn!

If someone was inside, they wanted to catch him by surprise.

They'd caught them by surprise all right; but the business wasn't going to be so easy.

Summer's heat came early this year and caught us by surprise.

But it was hard to think of the best course when caught by surprise.

I went to China; this problem has not caught us by surprise.

She should have expected the question, but it caught her by surprise.