Had an encounter recently that really got my wheels turning and wanted to ask others here about their thoughts.
Was out shopping with the family recently, and suddenly up comes a store worker who is obviously mentally handicapped. He gets rather close while initiating some random conversation. My son and wife are both obviously uncomfortable, yet we all made an effort to be polite and understanding while opening the distance a little. The whole thing lasted about two minutes with the guy just kinda talking on random stuff before he finally walked off.
My wife has had an uncomfortable encounter with this individual before, to the point he followed her outside one day and she hopped in the car quickly and left. She made a complaint to corporate about him following that incident, stressing that he could've wound up seriously hurt with his behavior.
I've sat and mulled over how to best handle such incidents with an individual who may not fully comprehend having it communicated they need to back off. In the event it came to any use of force, no matter how little, it could be made in to quite a fuss because of the individual's mental deficiency.
What thoughts or recommendations are there regarding handling cases such as these?