My guess is the children just gave them a general description except for the gloves. The guys just went out looking for a person walking alone. That might make them suspicious enough to ask you a few questions but these guys sounded like goons.
They very well may have beaten you. You probably did about as well as you could considering everything.
I think they made up the gloves part, Sure, I would be extremely upset if someone was going through cars. But I believed that showing them that I had nothing of value should have calmed their anger. I could easily prove that the phone was mine, and the iPod had my name in it.