What is "chop shop"

n. (context US English) A facility where stolen motor vehicles are disassembled in order to sell the mechanical parts.

n. a place where stolen cars are disassembled for their parts

In motor vehicle theft, a chop shop is a location or business which disassembles stolen automobiles for the purpose of selling them as parts. The term originated from the practice of building a car from two halves, welded together.

Stolen cars are sold in foreign countries for several reasons. In underdeveloped countries, there are often fewer rules and less enforcement of laws pertaining to plates and title paperwork, so the car is less likely to be noticed. Criminals are also hopeful that there is little incentive on the part of the victim to search in other countries, as even if the car is found, recovery may cost more (in detective, legal, and transportation fees) than the car is actually worth. This is especially true if the stolen car is of low value.

Chop Shop a.k.a. Scott Konzelmann, is a noise musician who has released recordings on Pure, RRRecords, Banned Production, V2_Archief and Generator Sound Art.

Chop Shop creates sound using salvaged materials and speakers to create drones and other sounds specific to the speaker created. Often the speaker features prominently in the packaging as a photo or daguerreotype. Chop Shop is known also for innovative packaging using leather, tar paper, steel plates, etc.

Konzelmann is also part of Generator Sound Art, Inc. in New York City. In 2005 Chop Shop was part of the Activating the Medium Festival.

Chop Shop is a 2007 American drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Ramin Bahrani. The film tells the story of a twelve-year-old street orphan living and working in Willets Point, an area in Queens, New York filled with automobile repair shops, scrapyards and garbage dumps.

Chop Shop premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

Chop Shop is a crime novel by the American writer Tim Downs.

This thriller features Nick “Bug Man” Polchak, a forensic entomologist who deduces clues to murders based on evidence left by insects on the victims. Dr. Riley McKay of the Allegheny County coroner's office is suspicious when analyzing several corpses. She asks Polchak for help, who discovers that a Pittsburgh-based black market in transplant organs seems to be fronted by PharmaGen, a genetics company with interests other than DNA.

Chop Shop is the second in a series of Christian suspense novels featuring “Bug Man” Polchak.

Chop Shop is a Canadian docusoap television series created, directed and produced by Ziad Touma that premiered on February 4, 2009, on the Slice Network. The show follows the stylists at a rock and roll hair salon in Vancouver, British Columbia. The series was produced by Paperny Films.

Chop shop is a slang phrase with various uses including an illegal location or business which disassembles stolen automobiles for the purpose of selling them as parts.

Chop shop may also refer to:

• Chop Shop (TV series), a Canadian docusoap TV series directed by Ziad Touma about a "rock 'n' roll" hairdressers
• Chop Shop (film), a 2007 American film
• Chop Shop (novel), a 2004 novel by American writer Tim Downs
• Chop Shop (musician), also known as Scott Konzelmann, a noise musician
• Chop Shop: London Garage, a TV series sequel to the show Bangla Bangers
• Chop Shop Records, a California-based record label