To nick

Helen:Hello, and welcome to The English We Speak. My name is Helen.
Rob:And I'm Rob.
Helen: I saw you looking for your headphones earlier; did you find them?
Rob:No, Helen. I looked for them everywhere. Someone must have nicked them.
Helen:Nicked them? What do you mean?
Rob:Oh, sorry, what I mean is someone stole my headphones. To nick something means to steal something.
Helen:That's terrible. But how is it spelt?
Rob:It's spelt N.I.C.K. nick, to nick something.
Helen:My son's best friend is called Nick. It's the same spelling, isn't it?
Rob:It is, but not the same meaning. Here the word 'nick' is a verb and it's British slang too.
Helen:Let's hear a couple of examples. What items have been stolen?
Man:Someone nicked my bike this morning.
Lady:Oh, no. Did you report it to the police?
Man:Yes, I did.
Man 1:Where are the chocolate biscuits I was saving? I am sure I saw them yesterday.
Man 2:Sorry, I don't know. Blame Dave, he's always nicking things.
Rob: So, one of them lost a bike and the other one lost his chocolate biscuits.
Helen:Unlucky chaps. Maybe the police can help them.
Rob:Yes. The police can definitely help them by nicking those petty thieves.
Helen: That's very confusing. The police can nick too? They can steal?
Rob:No, no, no, no. The police can't nick things from people. But when they arrest someone, we can say the person is nicked. It means they're arrested by the police.
Woman:Have you heard from Inspector James?
Man:No. He's working on a big case. I think they have just nicked the main suspect!
Helen:So if a criminal is caught by the police, then we can say he's nicked.
Rob:That's right. Let's go over the two meanings of the verb 'to nick'. First, if something is nicked, it means it's stolen.
Helen:Like my pen got nicked.
Rob:Yes, that's right. But if a person gets nicked, we mean he's arrested by the police.
Helen:A comedian got nicked for throwing a pie at Rupert Murdoch.
Rob: Yes, he did. Helen, you've got it. Just remember it's not a formal expression.
Helen: Thank you. I'll keep that in mind. Bye for now.
Rob: Bye!