There is a man I've seen relatively regularly (every few weeks/once a month, for a few days on the trot) at my bus stop when coming out of work. It's very apparent he has some type of learning difficulties - bear with me please as this is relevant to why I'm unsure how to kindly handle this. He is an older man, I'd estimate about 60, and not the most mobile, but is walking etc if you see what I mean.
He likes to say hello to anybody and everybody and have a brief chat - I overhear his chat and it's the exact same sentences/questions, to every person, every time. Completely harmless. Some people engage, others ignore him. He waves at strangers driving past etc.
He clearly seemed very friendly and in need/want of a chat/connection with folk. So I engage when he says hello, and asks me the same question every time. I quickly ask him how is his day, and let him know when the bus will arrive.
The last time he said hello it was somewhat different. Started as usual. He then approached me very closely, getting in my personal space, and bear with me how I describe this, took hold of the sleeve of my coat, so that his hand was both inside the sleeve and outside, looked at me in I'd say almost an affectionate way, and asked if my 'coat was warm'. I felt a bit uneasy at this and just sort of awkward laughed and said 'Yeah, still cold out tho eh' and made my excuses to move quite some distance away and stare away at my phone in an effort to ignore him. Out of my peripheral I could see he then started approaching me again, and I refused to make eye contact so as not to encourage him, and carried on scrolling on my phone. Next thing he's stood so close up to me, that I think he's looking over my shoulder at my phone. I look up and no, he's just staring at me, his face barely a few inches from mine. He asks me something else but I couldn't really understand, and then he makes a comment about my blonde hair, so I again stepped a few paces away, at which point my bus thankfully showed up.
The next morning when I arrive to work he's there, at the bus stop outside my work (opposite side of where he gets the bus in the evenings). I've never once seen him there in the morning - NEVER, it's only ever been evenings. Could be coincidence.
I leave work, and make a note to see if I can see him at the stop before I cross the road, so I can avoid him if he is, and thankfully it's all clear. Except when I actually got there he was there, just cleverly positioned out of view. He waves and says hello whilst I'm some 20 feet away, at which point I've already got on my phone on a phone call to avoid talking to him, so I just wave and turn my back. He starts approaching me again and repeating hello. I wave hello and point to my phone at my ear. He continues approaching, so I walk away further, and he then stops, and goes back to where he was. After a while, still on the phone, I have to walk back closer to the bus stop again as my bus will arrive soon, and yet again he starts approaching me, so I have to walk away again. My bus arrives and he makes a point of saying hello over and over again as I get on the bus.
I'm DREADING seeing him again. There's no other route I can take, it's in the middle of no where. I appreciate he has some difficulties, given this, AIBU to feel really unnerved by the man? I'm not usually such a wet lettuce, honestly, but he didn't half make me very uncomfortable with touching/comment about my hair. I suppose the feeling of unease is because I fear it will escalate next time, more than just a touch of my coat sleeve this time, which I wasn't expecting, so I'm not sure what to expect next time. What do I do?
I'm 32. I should have this kind of thing down. But I just don't.