I'm not worried about the laptop. Pretty much everyone knows that any valuable laptop is a tracking device anyway.

You should be worried about getting actually robbed, or even being attacked for no reason, while you're not paying attention.

Also, yes, nobody's going to help you. Some of it is because of general unawareness, as you point out. Then, it's difficult to know who's the aggressor. Even if that's all crystal clear, you're almost certainly going to deal with months or years of legal hell if you intervene. Successful interventions often lead to prosecutions.