The only experience I’ve had along these lines occurred in Chicago, made a long weekend out of a business trip, and friends flew up. We went out on the town, had a great time, got a little blitzed. Driving a rental Lincoln, bumped a curb causing a tire to leak, stopped at a 24 hr. gas station to put air in, air hose was way at the back, in a dark corner. Pulled up, started putting air in the tire, laughing and joking, then out of nowhere the car was surrounded. Late teens, all black, purporting to want to wash the windshield, at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.
Don’t know where it came from, but I put on my worst southern twang and said “I don’t give a $*** it’s a rental.” Don’t know if thugs can be taken aback, but they appeared to have been, initially. They recovered from the shock or whatever, and then I had to repeat this several times, with the ten or so moving closer each time.
A friend, the drunkest of us all, managed to get in behind them, grabbed the air hose and started whipping it around over his head and popped a couple of them with it. That created enough of a distraction to get everybody in the car, throw it in reverse and get out of there. And, that was that. I imagine they still laugh about it up there, if any of them are still alive and kicking to laugh about it.
One of those friends liked it enough up there that he took a job in Chicago. He was attacked several years ago and has a steel plate in his skull now. Just went outside to get something out of his car, parked on the street while at a friend’s house, and wham! Didn’t even see it coming, couldn’t possibly ID his attacker(s), other than young, black, wearing a hooded jacket.
So, this has been going on for a long time. My experience was in the early 90’s.