chop shop
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English [edit]
Noun [edit]
chop shop (plural chop shops)
- (US) A facility where stolen motor vehicles are disassembled in order to sell the mechanical parts.
- Apparently his stolen car had been taken to a chop shop, as the police only recovered the frame.
- 1979, Newsweek, The Car-Theft Boom, page 100,
- Once the car is in a chop shop, a skilled cutter can reduce it to salable parts in half an hour to 45 minutes.
- 1987 August, Ed Heney, Outsmart the Car Thieves, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, page 32,
- New York City sports a number of chop shops, as do Chicago, Detroit and most other large metropolitan areas. […] If they can′t find the right engine, the junkyard may call a chop shop contact to get someone on the street looking for the right make and year.
- 2009, Taylor Joseph, Allison Investigates, page 94,
- “A chop shop disassembles the entire car, so they need a location that is secluded, like a warehouse or a vacant factory — although today′s forfeiture laws tend to discourage chop shops.”
