Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 377, Reporting a Stolen Car.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 377.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Kenji and a police officer about his car that has been stolen.
Let's listen.
Hello, my car was stolen and I want to report it.
It was parked outside of my apartment building.
I went outside this morning to drive to work and it was gone.
Okay, you need to fill out this form.
Put down the make and model of the vehicle, the year, and the color.
You'll also need the license plate number.
Do you know the vehicle's VIN number?
No, I don't.
That's okay.
Just fill it out and we'll launch an investigation.
That's hard to say.
If it was stolen by some kids who wanted to take a joyride.
They'll abandon it afterwards and you may get it back in one piece.
If it was taken by professional car thieves, that's a different story.
They usually strip the cars of their parts and sell them to chop shops.
You may not want your car back after it's been stripped.
I'll just have to wish for the best.
We'll notify you if we have some news.
Thanks.
In the meantime, I'd better get used to hoofing it around town.
The telephone conversation begins with Kenji saying Hello, my car was stolen and I want to report it.
To report it stolen.
Stolen means it has been taken without his permission.
It has been taken illegally.
The police officer says Kenji says.
Kenji says I went outside this morning to drive to work and it was gone.
This happened to me once about, oh, 15 years ago when I first moved to Los Angeles.
I parked my car outside of my apartment building.
I got up in the morning this was a Saturday morning to meet a friend for breakfast and And my car was gone.
There was another car where I had parked my car.
So it's not a very fun experience.
I had to call the police.
Kenji says that he was going to work when he found out or discovered his car was stolen.
The officer says, okay, you need to fill out or complete this form, this piece of paper.
To put down means to write in this case.
The make of the vehicle is the name of the company who makes a specific product, such as Toyota or Ford or Mercedes-Benz.
These are the makes of cars.
The model of the car is the specific car among the many that that company makes.
So if you drive a Toyota, you not only drive a Toyota, you drive a specific kind of Toyota a Toyota Corolla.
That would be the model of the car.
So the make is Toyota, the model is Corolla.
The vehicle is just another word for the car, the automobile.
So the officer asks Kenji to put down, to write down the make and model of the vehicle, the year, what year it was made and the color.
She also asks him to write down the license plate number.
The license plate number is actually usually a set of letters and numbers that are on the metal plate on the front and sometimes on the back of your car.
These are plates, little pieces of metal, given by the government, the state government here in the US.
The officer then asks Kenji, Do you know the vehicle's VIN number or V-I-N number?
VIN stands for Vehicle Identification Number.
It's a long number that the maker of the car puts on the automobile.
That identifies that specific car, just like the license plate.
Kenji says, no, I don't.
I don't know the number.
Most people don't know the VIN number for their cars.
They're very long numbers, long set of numbers.
The officer says, that's okay.
Just fill it out and we'll launch an investigation.
To launch means to begin.
So they will begin an investigation.
They will try to find out what happened to his car.
Kenji says, what do you think the chances are that I'll recover my car?
To recover means to get back something that you've lost or that has been stolen from you.
Kenji is asking the officer what the chances are.
How probable is it that he will get his car back?
I can tell you that here in Los Angeles...
The answer is not very probable at all.
Although I did get my car back, unfortunately it had had a couple of accidents before I got it back.
The people who stole it had managed to hit another car with it, so I wasn't able to really use it after that.
The officer says that's hard to say.
It's difficult to tell you how good of a chance you have.
If it was stolen by some kids who wanted to take a joyride, they'll abandon it afterwards.
A joyride is when kids Teenagers, young adults steal a car just to ride it around for fun.
This is what happened to my car.
It was stolen for a few days and then it was abandoned.
To abandon something means to leave it somewhere with no intention of returning it, to give it up completely.
The officer says... you may get it back in one piece.
In one piece means without any major damage, not destroyed, like my car was.
If it was taken by professional car thieves, that is, someone who steals a car, We call that person a car thief.
A thief is anyone who steals things.
If it was taken by professional car thieves, that's a different story.
When someone says that's a different story, they mean that's a completely different situation.
Usually something that's not good.
They usually strip the cars of their parts and sell them to chop shops.
So when a professional thief steals a car, they strip the car, meaning they take it apart completely.
They take off the doors.
They take out the engine.
They take off the wheels.
They take it apart.
They strip the car.
To strip has a couple of different meanings in English.
Something of a dangerous word if you use it incorrectly.
Take a look at our learning guide so that you don't.
The officer says that the professional thieves strip the cars of their parts, of the individual components or pieces and sell them to chop shops.
To chop is another word meaning to cut.
A chop shop is a place where parts are taken from stolen cars and then sold.
It's a garage where the stolen cars are taken apart and then they sell the parts.
So it's not a public place because it's illegal, of course, to steal a car.
So chop shops are often places in bad neighborhoods or places where you don't really know what is there.
The officer says you may not want your car back after it's been stripped.
So if they take all the parts off of the car, you probably don't even want the car back.
Kenji said I'll just have to wish for the best, meaning.
I'm going to have to hope that there is good news.
The officer says, we'll notify you if we have some news.
Kenji says, thanks.
In the meantime...
I'd better get used to hoofing it around town.
To hoof, H-O-O-F, it means to walk, to travel by walking.
It's an informal expression.
If someone says, I'm going to hoof it to the store, they mean I'm going to walk to the store.
A hoof, as a noun, is the foot of an animal, like a horse has a hoof.
Sometimes we call the feet of animals paws, such as with a dog or a cat.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hello, my car was stolen and I want to report it.
Where was it when it was stolen?
It was parked outside of my apartment building.
I went outside this morning to drive to work, and it was gone.
Okay, you need to fill out this form.
Put down the make and model of the vehicle, the year, and the color.
You'll also need the license plate number.
Do you know the vehicle's VIN number?
No, I don't.
That's okay.
Just fill it out, and we'll launch an investigation.
What do you think the chances are that I'll recover my car?
That's hard to say.
If it was stolen by some kids who wanted to take a joyride.
They'll abandon it afterwards and you may get it back in one piece.
If it was taken by professional car thieves, that's a different story.
They usually strip the cars of their parts and sell them to chop shops.
You may not want your car back after it's been stripped.
I'll just have to wish for the best.
We'll notify you if we have some news.
Thanks.
In the meantime, I'd better get used to hoofing it around town.
The script for this episode was written by our very own Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2008.
