A chop shop is a slang phrase for an illegal location or business which disassembles stolen automobiles for the purpose of selling them as parts. It may also be used to refer to a location or business that is involved with the selling of stolen goods in general, or a brokerage that sells non-existent equities, both fraud and stolen goods. In the broadest sense a fraud is a Deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual Another common use refers to a business whose product, service, or equipment is of questionable quality. The term is often used in a tongue-in-cheek fashion for outlets specializing in choppers, and by butchers and barbers. Tongue-in-cheek is a term used to refer to humor in which a statement or an entire fictional work is not meant to be taken seriously but its lack of seriousness is subtle MotorCycle is the title of a 1993 album by Rock band Daniel Amos, released on BAI Records. ^[1]

For a car to be useful to the average person in the United States it must be properly registered and insured as eventually the police would notice missing plates or that the paperwork was not in order. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Police are agents or agencies usually of the executive, empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order through the legitimatized use of force A vehicle registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a Motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes Thus, stolen cars of lower value are often taken to a foreign country and sold where they are difficult, if not impossible, to track down. The lower value of the car would also make such an operation inefficient, as recovery may cost more than the price of the car.

Causes

While newer cars often have more anti-theft devices, for the car thief the risks and effort involved in stealing a car are not much greater on a more expensive car, when compared to the potential rewards, than a less expensive car. Newer and more expensive vehicles contain many anti-theft devices that are likely to be quite complicated. If not defeated, these devices make it very difficult, if not impossible, to resell the car. Many of these devices are kept secret by the manufacturers. There may be a radio tracking device, or kill switches and microchip keys unique to that particular vehicle, that cannot be easily obtained. Radio is the transmission of signals by Modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible Light. There may be many hidden places on the car where the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) is stamped. The chop shop will likely be more familiar with these devices. Most importantly, sometimes the separate parts of a vehicle may be worth more money than the whole. This may be more pronounced on luxury, rare, or foreign cars.

Operation

A chop shop must be able to take apart a car without damaging the parts and keep them organized. Time is of the essence: more cars processed equals higher profits. Too many cars waiting to be processed require larger buildings, which are often located in higher traffic areas. Larger buildings are more expensive and are not as easily rented without giving out personal information and large deposits. Huge rooms full of cars waiting to be "chopped", as seen in movies, are therefore not realistic. There is no advantage to a large inventory, as it can be done more efficiently in a "JIT" (Just In Time) manner by asking a thief only when cars are needed. Inventory is a list for goods and Materials, or those goods and materials themselves held available in stock by a Business. Just-in-time ( JIT) is an inventory strategy implemented to improve the Return on investment of a Business by reducing in-process Inventory and

In the event of a raid, a large inventory would result in multiple counts and a larger sentence against the defendants, whereas a talented attorney might be able to find a technicality if the shop only had one car. RAID — which stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks,or alternatively Redundant Array of Independent Disks (a less specific name and thus now the An attorney at law (or attorney-at-law) in the United States is a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute The car might be disassembled to the point that it would be difficult for the owner to recognize or prove ownership. A larger enterprise attracts more attention, as does many luxury cars going into the same warehouse and not coming out. Luxury vehicle is a marketing term for a vehicle that provides luxury &mdash that which is beyond strict necessity &mdash in exchange for increased cost to the buyer

Difficulties

A large operation requiring numerous employees would increase the likelihood of word getting out about the shop. Workers that work hard, do good work, keep secrets, and are willing to be involved in a criminal enterprise are quite difficult to find. "Crime syndicate" redirects here For the DC Comics group of villains see Crime Syndicate.

Locations

Chop shops are usually located in small industrial-type buildings where it would be expected that cars and workers would come and go and loud mechanical noises would be common. Chop shops operating in the Southwestern USA are likely to be located in Mexico, as the police there are more easily bribed and American authorities do not have jurisdiction. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Bribery, a form of pecuniary corruption is an act usually implying money or gift given that alters the behaviour of the recipient in ways not consistent with the duties of that person In Law, jurisdiction (from the Latin ius iuris meaning "law" and dicere meaning "to speak" is the practical Authority

Example statistics

In the Czech Republic there are 2. 7 million registered cars. A calculated estimate (made on a sample of 240 000 cars) is that 450 000 (16%) cars were once stolen or contain stolen parts. In total 23 000 cars were stolen in 2004, of which 4000 were found (17%). Following the information from Pavel Nahodil, the representative of foreign insurance companies in the Czech Republic, about 7% of the regular market price is paid for a stolen first-generation Skoda Octavia car in a chop shop.

References

• Criminal Resource Manual 1369: Chop Shops (Title 18 U. S. C. § 2322)
• City of Pittsburgh: Types of Car Theft
• Autoblog.com "BUSTED! Canada's largest chop shop caught with 700 stolen cars" - May 3rd 2007
• Deseret News (Salt Lake City) "Auto-theft ring and 'chop shop' out of commission" - Feb 19, 2006
• WKRN Nashville Tennessee "Car Thieves Target Hondas, Acuras For Chop Shops" - August 29, 2007
• InsideBayArea.com "Tracy authorities bust alleged chop shop" - 08/25/2007
• thedenverchannel.com "Police Discover Alleged Chop Shop, Auto Theft Ring" - October 15, 2004
• KSN.com "Feds bust Wichita chop shop for auto theft" - Aug 22, 2007
• [1] "Lidove Noviny 09/19/2007"