Wow, that's an interesting story. I'm glad the
police are working with your boss to keep him
and his family safe, not to mention you and
other employees of his shop.

I feel sorry for the man you described, though.
I hope he can get help before he does
something worse than stealing soup. I
certainly don't condone his actions, and I'm
not one to say that he isn't responsible for his
own actions, but I do pity him.

I used to work with a man who was a Vietnam
veteran. He suffered from the same kind of
psychological damage that the man you
described suffers. He wasn't nearly as bad off;
he didn't suffer from schizophrenia or any
other diagnosed mental illness (that I know
of), but he frightened people without meaning
too. He just had a very intense manner about
him and tended to get very worked up about
things that would seem insignificant to others.
He eventually was asked to leave his job
because of it, but he was only being himself...
the person that the horrible events he'd lived
through had made him into.

One other thing: your post reminded me of a
movie I saw on television a year or so ago. It
starred Emilio Estevez as a Vietnam veteran
who had trouble readjusting to his old life
back home after the war. It also starred his
father, Martin Sheen, as his father in the
movie. It was called "The War At Home."