When I lived in SF, there was a chronically homeless guy with essentially a permanent residence in front of my apartment. He ran a highly ineffective chop shop whereby he would disassemble stolen bikes with a 3’ section of steel pipe. It was a slow/loud/labor intensive process. He was an OK neighbor besides that I suppose…

Yes. Seattle had multiple chop shops scattered around the city, including this one dissecting cars under a bridge: https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/is-chop-shop-operating-plai...

At least where I live, it's mostly bikes and specific car parts that are accessible like the catalytic converter. A 20A multitool and steel cutting saw blades are not expensive (~$250 retail) and can get the job done very quickly.

Thief and chop shops are separate specialties. I’d imagine if this claim is even true, the homeless people are acquiring raw assets and flipping them quickly

There’s a caravan of dilapidated RVs on the road next to my gym in Seattle. The “homeless” have setup permanent structures and solar panels. A guy runs a bike chop shop out of his.

Not in the sense of "a large percentage of homeless people are running chop shops". However, you do find some notable examples of apparently homeless people just running chop shops in the open on random public land. Sometimes people who've had their bikes stolen will go them to find their bikes there and take 'em back.

> Is there a rash of homeless people running chop shops? That seems shocking.

It's true, especially for things like bicycles or small engines.

> Tools are expensive - where do they keep them?

Some of the camps are quite elaborate.

> Are they dissecting cars under bridges?

yes. It's been getting worse around Sacramento for several years now.

Very literally, yes.

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/is-chop-shop-operating-plai...

It's happening broad daylight in green spaces in Seattle. It's not pervasive, but it's there.