Damn. The guy definitely sounds loony; but I think you handled it well. Your post reminds me of a few stories of my own from working alone as gym staff if I may share them here; mostly with people high on drugs:
- One quiet Sunday morning a larger man limped into the gym. He asked me if he had arrived at the x-ray clinic, which I told him no, he had not. It was then that I realized that his leg was broken and still bleeding, yet he was walking on it as if it didn't even hurt; but every time he stepped on it he hobbled a little because the leg did not really support him as well. He was high as shit on some sort of accelerant, I'd guess, and must have broken his leg in the night while running around. When he realized he was in the wrong pace he turned around, but not before going to the hand sanitizer dispenser on the wall and proceeding to pump it into his hands to drink. I kind of just sat there in silence while this happened. Next he got a big gob on his hand, reached down his pants, and rubbed around for a while. He gave me a nice toothless smile and said "You gotta clean them now and again". Then he turned around and walked out, stopping to flex his muscles in front of the window that the treadmills faced, for the one gym-goer to see. Such is life.
- A separate time (this time on a Saturday morning) an intoxicated man came in and tried to sell me a pair of very nice woman's jeans for $5, which still had the security tags on them. After I politely declined, he tried a couple of different methods of swaying me into buying them. First he said that his family had been killed by an axe murderer. Then he said he knew Kung Fu and would hurt me, and started swinging the jeans around. When I threatened to call the police, he kindly took leave of my presence.
- One night after locking up I walked across the street to the convenience store to buy some snacks. A couple of greasy fellows in a rusty truck were there, and asked me if I wanted to buy some weed. I told them no and walked inside. Ironically, a couple of cops were finishing up interviewing the cashier for a separate incident, and were just about to walk out as the guys outside were offering weed to another entering customer. A foot-chase and a car-chase transpired I'm not sure what became of them but I always laugh when I think of that story. Good times.
I was never held up or bothered by mentally ill people though, just folks high on drugs or asking for money. Most of the other stories involve people in the parking lot asking for money to buy food. When this happened I would typically just give them a sandwich or an apple out of my lunch if I had some. Sometimes they held it like they didn't know what to do with it and gave a half-hearted "oh thanks" (looking for drug money obviously), while other times they were extremely grateful. That always made me feel all fuzzy inside.
#1 Amb-ass-ador
