You mean a tight, enclosed, single-direction space, crowded with people who are tired, and/or trying to relax, and/or thinking about the destination, and/or otherwise not particularly focused after hours of travel; a thing that contains ticket inspectors that show up every now and then to check tickets, and from which passengers embark and disembark at dozens point along the length of the thing, simultaneously, with no supervision or security checks.

Depending on the train type and configuration, many actually seem like pickpocket paradise.

Yes, all the time. It's happened to two people I know, in France and in the US.

People get up to use the bathroom or the cafe car, the laptop is left behind for ten minutes, one of the train stops is while they're away from their seat, and someone sees an opportunity, snags it, and gets off at the stop.

This is an actual thing. And if it's worth a thousand bucks then it's very much worth getting off at an earlier stop then you'd planned, and continuing your journey on the next train.

Ticket inspectors or guards are irrelevant. There isn't one in your car 99% of the time.

I don't why you're trying to argue laptop theft on trains in first-world countries isn't a thing. It absolutely is.

You don't hear much about laptop thefts these days because phones are more valuable, more numerous, and much easier to steal.

Obviously, nobody steals things while the train is in motion. They wait until the train is about to leave the station, snatch a phone or handbag and jump out just as the door is closing. The train leaves, the thief blends in with other passenger leaving the station, and by the time news of the theft has made it from the passengers to the driver to the station staff the thief is long gone.

Of course people drive around $6,000+ cars all the time, so....

People stabbed maybe, but that tends to be more sports related than laptop related. (Yes on a national line(!))

Only on Hacker News would I have someone arguing with me that laptop theft is not a concern. You know what, you win. It's your $6,000 laptop, not mine.

For real? Grab it before the door closes.

it must be amazing to have so much faith in people like you seem to have