being accosted in a restaurant or other public place

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has anybody here on WP ever been accosted by a house-less person or other street person while they were at some public place such as a bus stop or restaurant? it happened to me in a Thai restaurant and I was absolutely a deer in the headlights. this person, an elderly-appearing lady, approached my table, interrupting our meal and our conversation without regard, and handed me a handwritten note with the supposed address of a senior center in town that I was not familiar with. she kept asking me "you have a car, don't you? I need you to drive me to this address." the lady then, while muttering at me, sat down at my table and went through her purse which was stuffed with scraps of paper with writing on them. this was after this lady accosted the staff for about 5 minutes, then the lady went to go hide in the bathroom and wait until the restaurant emptied out. the woman manning the cash register simply disappeared for an extended period during the entire interaction. I didn't know how to politely make this person leave us [me and my sweetie] alone. my sweetie pointed out that this street person likely saw me as a "mark" that she could take advantage of, perhaps luring me to an ambush where I could be mugged or worse. I looked away as best I could to give her a non-verbal "brush-off," but to no avail. she looked relatively well-kept and clean. my sweetie kept looking for help from the management, 3 times seeking some staff member to help us, to no avail.
how does one deal with this sort of imposition from a stranger with mal-intent?
A PUBLIC WARNING- IF you let a stranger into your car, particularly if you are a woman or an aspie male, bad things may happen to you- if you're a male and let a female into your car, they could rob you or accuse you loudly and publicly of something untoward and illegal. a strange of either gender could assault, rob or even kill you. me and my sweetie both seemed, in retrospect, to be deer in the headlights. we felt like we were targeted.

I was in the city, heading towards the train station, when an old homeless guy in a wheelchair yelled out to me (there were plenty of people around, I don't know why he picked me) asking if I would push him to the train station. I was going there anyway, so I thought why not. So once we were near the station, the guy said he wanted to go to the busport. That was the other side of the city. I said are you sure, and he said his friends were there.

So once I got him to the busport (slowly, he kept accusing me of pushing him too fast), he said he wanted to go to city central. I asked him where his friends were. He said city central. I said that will be the last place I push him because I had to catch a train. So once I got him to city central, I saw a bunch of homeless people sitting outside a McDonald's. I asked the guy, are they your friends? He said yes, and could he have some money for a burger? All I had on me was $10. I didn't want to part with it but felt I had to.

I haven't done well here to describe what the guy was like. Well, he was an Aboriginal man, in his late 70s, I'd say. One of his feet was bandaged and he used the other bare foot to push himself around when there was no one to push him. He smelt pretty bad but I sort of expected that. I knew of a place where it would cost him 50¢ for a shower though, he could have used my money for that.

Once he had my money, he was happy for me not to have to push him places anymore.

Not by homeless people, but I have been accosted by a worker in my local Tesco a couple of times, so I try and avoid her till when I pay for my shopping.

During the early pandemic days I was paying for the small amount of items I had managed to get from the bare shelves of the supermarket, and she was on the till. I was feeling really anxious inside because it felt like the apocalypse, but I tried to put on a brave face and chatted to her as I paid, and when she gave me a bag I joked that at least they hadn't ran out of bags. But she just snapped at me to stay behind the big yellow line that was on the floor that I somehow didn't see and felt silly. I know it wasn't personal but I still felt silly.

Then a couple of years later I was paying for some shopping at her till and she asked if I had a clubcard. I said yes and went to get it out of my pocket, but she just exclaimed "pardon??" as though I had said something rude. I looked up and just calmly repeated "yes, I do have a clubcard" and pulled it out of my pocket. I felt the people in the queue were staring at me like they'd heard her yell at me and so probably assumed I was rude to her or something, even though all I'd said was "yes". And no, it wasn't the way I said it, I actually have normal control over my tone of voice and never accidentally say things in the wrong tone. I think what happened was I'd said "yes" too quietly and for some reason she thought I'd muttered something else. But I've learnt that that's the way she is, just a haughty sort of person. Even so, I still don't like her and always avoid her whenever I go in there.

Was alone , walking around a very busy street with lots of lights and vendors . And a ongoing ceiling LED light display . On Fremont street in Las Vegas , Nevada. Turned into a walk only street. As a tourist trap in retrospect .
Some non offensive looking tall coloured fellow , was walking about too . And apparently by hisself . And he seemed to want to walk about with me. So thinking I was being nice , I wanted to buy a drink from a vendor, And thought since ,I now had someone to walk with through the crowd , Might be nice to buy him a nice drink from the same vendor . And as he ,
after awhile did not go off on his own, Me , (Playing the tourist role). So after about a hour of this . I was not able to stand up anymore. And I said , I have to leave now. Then he said, I owed him 10 dollars .??? .
Thought he was of a similiar mindset, just enjoying the company. Then he insisted ?? . So that was the end of my cash . So basically ,I had to pay him to go away. Afterwards, I did not think perhaps he was homeless. He did not appear so? and did not say so? But it was very presumptious .And I was taken back. And left feeling ten dollars lighter.

So am starting to understand that , if you meet a stranger with, what you might hope to be a common interest .
Just looking at advertisement lights ? Just one of several experiences like this .
Its going to cost you money, if they walk with you ? Its a wonder the entire world isn't more paranoid.

Lyrics:
Smiling faces sometimes
Pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces
Of the evil that lurks within (can you dig it?)
Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes
They don't tell the truth
Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof
Oh, oh, yeah
Let me tell you
The truth is in the eyes 'cause the eyes don't lie, amen
Remember, a smile is just a frown turned upside down my friend
So, hear me when I'm saying
Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes, yeah
They don't tell the truth
Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof
(Beware) beware of the handshake
That hides the snake (can you dig it, can you dig it?)
I'm a-tellin' you beware of the pat on the back
It just might hold you back
Jealousy, (jealousy) misery (misery) envy (envy)
I tell you you can't see behind
Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes
Hey, they don't tell the truth
Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof
Hey, your enemy won't do you no harm
(Rap on) 'cause you'll know where he's comin' from
Don't let the handshake and the smile fool ya
Take my advice, I'm only tryin' to school ya
Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes
They don't tell the truth
Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof
Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes

Since this happened in Las Vegas perhaps he was working as an independent escort Was he stereotypical handsome or muscular? If not I'd assume he just saw you as an easy mark.

Me & my girlfriend have had homeless people act pesky about giving them money. One time me & Cass were eating at Papa John's which was by the bus station & a guy walked in & went straight to us & asked for change. I said we didn't have any & he immediately walked out. The woman working there asked if he asked us for money & when I told her what happened she thanked us for not giving him any because the homeless had a habit of just going in to ask customers & when customers do give them money the homeless tell their homeless buddies & more start randomly walking in doing it. Another time me & Cass were at a Greyhound bus station in New York traveling to visit my parents in Louisiana & had a long layover there & a guy asked her for money. Cass is a bleeding heart type so she gave him some & then the guy said he needed more & Cass told him she didn't have any other small bills & the guy then asked for some bigger ones. At that point I got in his face & told him to leave her alone & the guy walked off. Homeless & others have a habit of asking for money at that station & the anchorites were trying to stop it but the station is very big & crowded so the authorities can not monitor everywhere. at once Cass told her dad about it & he told her a story about how a guy asked him for change as a reuse to see how much was in his wallet before mugging him.

I had to look up the word "accosted" ha ha. My first instinct was no that hasn't happened to me. But then I read all the replies above and thought sure things like that happened occasionally. Like when I was living alone, a very weird looking lady nagged and followed me all the way home and tried to squeeze into my door. I gave her a big push and shut the door quickly. And I never thought about it much. I grew up in a tough environment and wasn't taught to be polite and compliant. I don't feel guilty saying no.

Yahooo... good for you ....!
Thought everyone from Canada was taught to be polite , ? maybe even compliant ? but then again maybe not ?