You might think armored cars are for war zones like Iraq or Afghanistan. Or maybe for the very wealthy. But in Brazil, more and more middle class families are armoring their cars to protect themselves from robberies on the road.

Sao Paulo is now the no. 1 city for armored cars in the world. And Rio de Janeiro, which just won the right to host the 2016 Olympics, is no. 2.

The armored car drivers we talked to here were ordinary college students or business people. Their cars were modest Chevys or Hondas. And they all shared a story -- they were all robbed at gunpoint on the roads of Rio.

A young woman told us how her knees went weak when four gunmen surrounded her car. When they pulled her out she lost the power to stand up. She fell at the feet of one of the gunmen and had trouble moving off the road. She said the people around were too scared to help.

Armoring your car here costs between $15,000 and $70,000, depending on how much protection you want. Do you want to be safe from .38 pistols, 9mms or something bigger? Steel is more expensive and heavier than kevlar. It can add 400 pounds to the chassis, which can reduce the life of the car.

One man we spoke with, who was also robbed at gunpoint, spent $140,000 on a Honda Civic. You don't ordinarily think of a Honda Civic as a $140,000 car, but it can be in Rio.

What struck me as odd was that none of the owners thought about leaving, living somewhere else, after being robbed. The young woman said she still loved Rio. I guess people get used to the threat.

Of course, not everyone can afford armored safety. We got some video of one old woman on a bus. She was caught in the middle of a gun battle between the police and drug gangs who control the slums, neighborhoods known as favelas.

What struck me and our cameraman Alfredo DeLara about the video was that before she stepped out of the minivan bus, in the middle of a gun battle to run for cover you see her reach forward and hand some change to the driver. Even in a gunfight this woman was going to pay her fare. What honor!