A Royal Canadian Mounted Police veteran said he fought off a man’s home invasion by spraying him with Windex.

The suspect, 30-year-old Nathaniel Smith, later helped police with his own arrest by calling 911, authorities said.

Smith is accused of rushing into Jacques Baillargon's condominium in Lauderdale Lakes armed with a crowbar and a gun, as he wore a skullcap. He faces a charge of home invasion with a firearm after the Tuesday incident, online Broward court records said.

Baillargon, a veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, showed NBC 6 how he fought off Smith's attack, then sprayed him in the face with window cleaner.

“I look at him and I said I have to grab his eyes with the Windex,” Baillargon said.

He said he spritzed Smith with the Windex twice, then deflected Smith’s arm with his own – knocking the crowbar out of his hand.

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Smith then took off, leaving behind the crowbar and skullcap. Afterward, in an effort to misdirect investigators, police say, Smith called 911 and reported that somebody stole the tools he had used in the home invasion.

“The tools that we fixed on my brother's girlfriend's car, it’s a small crowbar, a miniature crowbar, my black skully was with my book bag, my wallet’s missing, everything,” he said in a 911 call released by authorities.

Baillargon laughed about that aspect of the story. Why?

”Because he was playing smart, but I guess he didn’t play the right card,” he said.

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Baillargon said his training as a law enforcement officer gave him confidence to resist Smith and fight back.

He also had something else on his mind.

“I was thinking about my wife, my wife,” Baillargon said. “My wife, and also I don't like to be afraid, so I said if something happened to her I'm going to have to live with that, so I prefer to run the risk.”

Smith also faces kidnapping and drug charges, according to online jail records. He is being held on no bond in the Broward County Main Jail, and it was not immediately known if he has an attorney.

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