Etymology Initialism of "taken (or taking) without owner's consent". From section 12 of the United Kingdom's Theft Act 1968, which states 'a person shall be guilty of an offence if, without having the consent of the owner or other lawful authority, he takes any conveyance for his own or another’s use or, knowing that any conveyance has been taken without such authority, drives it or allows himself to be carried in or on it'.
[…] women making arrests for aggravated burglary represent 22 per cent of the total and for aggravated TWOCs, 23 per cent […]2002, Louise Westmarland, Gender and Policing, Routledge, →ISBN:
[…] the reported victimisation rate for TWOC and attempted TWOC (six out of 28 available vehicles victimised, and […])2010, Anthony Bottoms, Julian Roberts, Hearing the Victim: Adversarial Justice, Crime Victims and the State, Routledge, →ISBN, page 121:
TWOC
adj
Etymology Initialism of "taken (or taking) without owner's consent". From section 12 of the United Kingdom's Theft Act 1968, which states 'a person shall be guilty of an offence if, without having the consent of the owner or other lawful authority, he takes any conveyance for his own or another’s use or, knowing that any conveyance has been taken without such authority, drives it or allows himself to be carried in or on it'.
Most familiarly, juveniles twoc cars. But, I suggest, readers twoc writings.1994 Winter, John Hartley, “Twoccing and joyreading”, in Terence Hawkes, editor, Textual Practice, volume 8, number 3, page 2:
Joyriders are generally introduced to ‘twoccing’ by friends and it is seen as exciting, with many recounting the thrill, excitement and ‘buzz’ involved.1998, Hazel Croall, Crime and Society in Britain, Longman, →ISBN, page 220:
4 more examples
James Harris also left a note saying "North Shields crew, if you don't keep it locked, it will get twocked" on the victim's TV2015 June 22, Sara Nichol, “North Shields window cleaner poured bleach over victim's clothes when he burgled her house”, in Chronicle Live:
Security guard or not, Michael had jumped at the chance to steal, or in his parlance ‘twoc’, the bus.2016, Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons & Rob Gibbons, Alan Partridge: Nomad, page 171:
A frustrated Kim, in a bright yellow waistcoat that looked like someone had made a hi-viz tabard out of Big Bird, twocked Vincent’s car and had a high octane 2mph crash with Dot Branning.2016 October 18, Ian Hyland, “EastEnders has been a load of rubbish - but Kim's driving test could change that”, in Daily Mirror:
[The sentence was imposed in August by Judge Passfield, after he had pleaded guilty to taking a vehicle without consent.]2023 November 28, Gareth Crickmer, “Sunderland man gets banned from drinking alcohol after twocking car, then gets caught out by ankle tag”, in Sunderland Echo: