I either park far away, park next to a car worth much more than mine, and always always steer clear of a car the looks to be a kid carrier...
I do this when I can, unfortunately at work and at the grocery store, which is usually where I park 80% of the time, there are very few empty spots. Maybe I just need to grocery shop at 11pm.... hah.
For 10 years i have parked in the farthest spot i could find away from anyone else. I found shortly there after if you did this someone would always come and park in the spot right next to you. I now park in the farthest 2 spots, haven't had any issues yet. That spot is great though. I need to find one of those.
I HATE it when this happens! I did this at the mall last month, parked, went in for a few things, came out and lo and behold, two cars parked by me, one behind, one beside, in a completely empty row. WTF do people feel safer parking by someone else or something?