Once years ago, I was behind a Mustang that lost its left front wheel. Somehow the wheel flew up into the air and came down about 10 feet to my left. The last I remember was the driver of the Mustang getting out with a “WTF” look on his face and the wheel bouncing down the road behind me.
Since then, I have had two occasions when a wheel started coming loose, both only days after having my car worked on, once by a dealership and the other by a tire shop. Since then, I always check after my car is worked on to make sure the lug nuts/bolts were properly tightened (yes, I use a torque wrench).
I will guarantee you that mine was vandalism. The guy sprayed paint all over the body of the car, too. The guy whose garage space I rented from cleaned that part up for me. My old pony had wheel covers so I couldn’t have noticed anything else amiss. Scary morning for me when that wheel failed in rush hour traffic in Chicago. Decades ago. The tow truck that stopped towed me off to a parking lot and asked me if I had any big enemies. The tire had stayed sideways on the axel and the guy told me I had only one lug nut on that tire and it had come off.