Was approached by a shady man at airport, glad I got away

I (F23) travel a lot for work, and I usually travel by myself without a problem. I was once almost kidnapped by a shady man at an airport (US), and I want to share my story.<br><br>So here is what happened:<br><br>I was waiting for my flight at airport to head home after work. I sat down on a row of seats in the waiting area on the second floor of the airport, so I had a view of pretty much everything. I sat down and plugged my phone in to charge. I noticed a man standing by the elevators looking around the area. After a few minutes he started walking in my direction and I noticed that there was a little girl without any adults with her sitting across from me. The little girl noticed the man and got up and walked away. The man then approached me. He had a very noticably strong and unpleasant smell. He started to make small talk and I tried being polite but not engaging. The man asked me where I was going and his eyes started to gleam when I said that I was traveling alone, and he asked me what time my flight was. I lied and said that my flight was in 30 minutes and I had to go through security, when in reality I had about 3 hours until my flight. The man offered to walk me to security, and I said no thanks. He continued to linger around me. I packed my stuff up to move to a new location, and the man insisted on helping me carry my stuff. I said no thanks, and then he asked if he could buy me some food to eat before I left. I said no thanks again. The man finally gave up and walked away after a couple of minutes.<br><br>I was shaken by the experience and didn't want to sit out in the open again, so I sat in a corner and read a book on my phone. I noticed that the same man was walking around in my general direction for a while, but he didn't approach me. I eventually got hungry and needed to use the bathroom, so I got up to find a restaurant. When I got off the escalator on the first floor I noticed that the smell from earlier was still present, but then I lost the smell after a couple of minutes. I found a restaurant and sat down at the bar, and ordered some food. I noticed a familiar smell, and when I looked to my right the same man from earlier was sitting there. He looked at me and smiled, and made eye contact with me for the rest of the time that I was there. When I got up to leave, and the man got up too. I didn't want him to follow me, so I went into the first bathroom that I saw. I stayed in the bathroom for a while before coming out, and the man was nowhere to be seen. I went through security and made it to my gate and sat down. Right before they called us to board the man from earlier showed up and scanned his boarding pass and walked down the jetway. I didn't see him on the plane, and nothing else happened during my trip.<br><br>I'm really glad that nothing bad happened, and I got away safely.<br><br>Edit: I decided to report this to the airport and the flight and they said that this man wasn't listed on the flight manifest. The airport is looking into their footage to try to identify the man.