Crack addicts, having exhausted other lines of
credit, have been known to buy their fixes on the value of their cars, which are given to their
dealers in the meantime. The car is then referred to as a "rock rental," the idea being that when the
user comes up with the cash, he'll give it to the dealer to get his
wheels back.
Such is the nature of crackheads, though, that they don't get the money back. If they did have the money, they'd blow it on more rock anyway. And their chances of getting money are reduced by being immobilized in the first place, so this is often close to the end of the line in the downspiral of the crack addict, or so I'd imagine. (On the list of things I'd hock to meet my desperate need for drugs, anyway, my automobile would be close to the bottom.)
The funny part is that addicts frequently go to the police and report the car as stolen in the hopes of getting it back that way. (What they're thinking, I can't imagine...seems to me a good way to commit suicide. Which might be what they're thinking, I dunno.)
The Savannah, Georgia, PD put out a press release this week saying that false crime reports were on the rise. They estimated that 30 percent of all reported car thefts were in fact rock rentals. Amazing times we live in!