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What's the best way to respond to kids who grab my electric wheelchair controls?

Yesterday at the store, a child of 3 or 4 came bounding up to me, grabbed my electric chair control, and rammed me into a store display before I knew what was happening. I pushed his hands away and said no, you can't do that. I know he understood because he argued with me, in very clear sentences, and swatted my hands, as he made several more grabs for the controls. At one point he nearly ran over his own feet. I had to power down and just sit there because my chair is VERY heavy, and if the kid had run himself over with it, it would have caused injury comparable to being run over by a car. Then I waited for him to go away, which took a while because he started smacking the controls to get them to work again. Then he yanked on my feet and dislocated one of my ankles (that's part of my disability, it dislocates easily), and spent some time poking my shoes.

As far as I know, he was unattended the whole time. I finally escaped when he got bored with me and started yanking merchandise off a nearby shelf and tossing it down the aisle. But now I wonder, is there any right way to react to such behaviour? How would you deal with such a situation?