I was walking today with my 10 week old DD in her pram and my dog.
It's a local "lodge" (cafe, multiple greens and football pitches surrounding and some woods).
I was sat on a bench under some trees taking shelter from the rain and using the ball thrower for my dog and a man came up and asked if I knew how to copy and paste an email address to his brother on WhatsApp. My sister has autism and the way he spoke/moved etc reminded me of her and the email address I helped him send to his brother was our local community mental health team email (I know this as was referred to them a few years ago). I helped him and he said thank you and sat on a bench behind me.
He then came back asking me where I lived, what baby was called etc. I gave vague details "I live in London" for example not an exact area, I told him my babies name as her middle name and he'd heard me call my dog back with the ball so knew his name. I didn't want to ignore him or refuse to give details as I was on my own and don't know if he'd of got angry or frustrated etc.
He then tried to unzip my daughters rain cover and put his hand in, I said "no, leave her she is sleeping" and moved the pram away, he was then calling my dog to him and kept grabbing the ball as I was trying to get it so my dog was following him. I said I needed to leave and said goodbye and started walking but he was following and kept trying to grab the pram and asking me if he could walk her around the field, he said he had plenty of experience with babies as he had two grandchildren. (I would of guessed he was late 30s) and he said he couldn't remember their names. I kept removing his hand off the pram telling him that I'm pushing her.
This area is normally very busy in the holidays but today I could only see a few young teenagers on bikes where I was, no adults.
I text my husband to call me immediately because I felt unsafe because of him trying to touch my DD, take her pram etc. DH called and started to ask me questions that I could give answers to that wouldn't let the man cotton on "if he's following you say yeah you would like pizza for dinner" etc. unfortunately my DH is working in an area with bad signal and kept cutting off. I started walking quickly across the field towards the cafe and noticed he'd gone.
Once I reached the cafe, he appeared from the other side of it, shouting questions to me like "what is your name again I can't remember?" etc he carried on following me to the car park and once he/I saw people getting in and out of cars he turned around and left. I was in a panic by then in case he waited until they'd gone off or left and was trying to get DD in her car seat, the pram and dog in the boot etc quickly as possible and get in and lock the doors but you know when you're in a bit of a panic and can't seem to do anything quick, the pram wouldn't collapse properly etc. I then noticed he was walking around the car park.
Once I got home, I reported to 101. However, now I feel bad as I do think he was autistic or/and mental health issues. I was in a psychiatric hospital after I hit a low with my depression and I felt like he acted similar to people I met there, also the autistic traits I recognise from my sister and I'm worried he's going to get into trouble if he meant well, was just lonely, didn't understand that he was crossing boundaries.
Did I do the right thing?