Am I Paranoid? or a Practical People Watcher?

While on one of my outings for work we were at Mervyns. Our objectives on these outings are to get the kiddo to respond appropriately to demands like "stop" "look" "come here" and "Stay with me". While these are being requested of the child I go about making notes and general observations of the child. There are other people on the case who do what I do and sometimes they come out to the outings as well. I'm new on this case so I really just stick to talking with the consultant on the case. The little girl doesn't like going shopping for clothes (which is what we were doing at Mervyns) so the consultant took it upon herself to come out to the session and see first hand the behaviors and antecedents present in the child.

We were shopping for clothes in the little girls section at Mervyns, which is next to the little boys sections, and general child like things. I was standing back from the group (ie the mother, the consultant, a six year old girl and a seven year old girl writing down some notes about the girl picking out clothes when an old man (approximately 65 years old with salt and pepper hair that peeks out from underneath his large brimmed fishing style, olive green hat and a full beard)appears. He is dressed like you would almost expect someone like him to be dressed like, a little mismatched with pants that weren't quite long enough to go all the way over his ankle, and you can almost make out the outline of a pack of cigarettes in the pocket of his denim jacket. He's carrying a small duffel bag that almost makes you think he's in the store stealing things, or maybe he's homeless and packing his possessions with him, only thing is, he's not dirty like a homeless man would be. He greets my party with a creepily "hello, ladies"... then he sort of nonchalantly glances around the department store becoming aware of his surroundings and stations himself right next to an exit door. He is transfixed and just staring at the two small little girls that I am with, his train of thought is only interrupted by his jumping with a sense of being startled by people going through the doors to leave and the alarm sounds that the security tags aren't removed from their belongings. This causes him to look around suspiciously as if he's waiting to be removed by security...

"Am I the only one here creeped out by this guy?" I think to myself. Nobody else in my group has even LOOKED at him let alone spoken a word to him, in fact, I'm not even sure if they addressed him the first time after he creepily said "hello ladies"...

My heart begins to race as I think of what I'm going to tell the police the guy looked like who snatched up the little kid. I wondered how many police lineups I would have to look at, then I thought almost as if it should have been instinctual "Ah, he must be on Megan's Law... I wouldn't have to look at pictures for much longer than just one afternoon". I'm disgusted that I feel relieved by that.

Different scenarios begin to run through my mind of him snatching the seven year old sister while the six year old is trying on clothes, or him taking the cute little red head girl without knowing that she's Autistic and then killing her and dumping her tiny body in an orchard when he realizes the communication barrier... or maybe keep her forever since she can't talk she wouldn't ever be able to tell anyone who she is or that she was kidnapped from Chico Mervyns... oh man, that wouldn't look too good if a kiddo got kidnapped while I was with them in session... I wondered how the trickle down effect of blame would be disbursed, then I begin to think....

"This is why I've been people-watching all these years! I've been in training to spot a potential kidnapper or pedophile!"
"That must be why nobody else in the group has mentioned this guy to me, they aren't as in tune with their people watching abilities as I am and probably haven't noticed the creep already halfway out the door and just looking for a kid to take and flee the country with, or sell on the black market of human trafficking."
Just then in my coldest most stand offish voice (which if you know me isn't the easiest thing for me to pull off seriously) I hear myself saying "Can I help you with something?" I'm staring at this guy expecting him to just turn and run out the door as if he knows that I know what he's really doing there and the cops are already on their way... then just like that....

My consultant says "oh he's with us, he's from the regional facility, this is John"

Everyone enjoyed a good laugh about my hyper paranoia... and the man laughed and said "I guess I should try to look a little more friendly" I responded with a censored version as to what I observed of his behavior and said, "just try not to look so suspicious"...