The chance to be involved in an armed robbery are small in every big city in the world. Based on anecdotes people will always over or under exaggerate the chances.<p>Just to give a counter example: I lived in Brussels, Philadelphia, Oslo, Sao Paulo... the only place about which I have a first hand &quot;armed robbery&quot; story was in Oslo of all places: a coworker got actually shot in the back when he bravely (but stupidly) turned his back and said &quot;no, you are not going to shoot me&quot;.<p>He was lucky and was only a couple of weeks out but he carried his X-rays of the bullet with him because nobody would believe him otherwise.