I've had two break while handling them. Both were being pulled from a game, in my hands, and just as I'm clearing the lockbar latch mechanism both just shattered in my hands. No stress on the glasses - just lots of little pieces everywhere. The second of the two occurred when I had just delivered an IJ I had just completed shopping. It was sitting in the owner's garage and I pulled the glass to reinstall the gun shooter handle. I was very glad it waited until it was not over the freshly shopped playfield to break.
I've also dropped glasses without any damage to the glass. So I'm convinced it's just a matter of "it's time is up" when these decide to break.