A Use For Spray-On Window Cleaner

Weapon: Grabbing a bottle of blue window cleaner Mr Baillargeon said he sprayed the chemical, pictured, in the burglar's eyes and blocked his swing of a crowbar.

So there is a use for spray on window cleaners after all..

Man fends off home invader with glass cleaner: Lauderdale Lakes, Fla. - A home invasion victim turned the tables on an armed man, fighting back with an everyday household item. Sixty-six-year-old Jacques Baillargeon didn't sit back when a robber stormed into his apartment. "I don't like to be afraid, I never like to be afraid in my life," said Baillargeon. On Tuesday, Baillargeon said a man came into his home carrying a gun and a crowbar. At the time, Baillargeon was relaxing with his wife. "And I said, 'No way this guy is going to touch my wife,'" he said.

Before the robber could grab any cash or jewelry from the apartment, Baillargeon grabbed the first weapon he saw, which was a bottle of glass cleaner. "I said, 'No way, I will try not to panic and I will try to knock him down,'" said Baillargeon. Baillargeon sprayed the robber's face with the blue liquid. The robber then dropped his crowbar and fled the scene. Baillargeon immediately called 911.

Dispatcher: "You sprayed him with window cleaner?"

Baillargeon: "Yes."

Moments later, 29-year-old Nathanael Smith called 911 and claimed his home was broken into.

Dispatcher: "Did you see anyone? Can you tell me what they look like?"

Smith: "No, ma'am. He had on all black with a bandanna over his mouth."

Smith told police a crowbar was taken during the alleged robbery. Police questioned him and determined it was a cover-up.

Detectives said Smith was the one who tried to rob Baillargeon. Smith faked having a crowbar stolen to explain how his print was on the crowbar he left behind. Smith appeared before a judge Wednesday and is being held without bond. Police said Smith confessed he robbed Baillargeon and also confessed to robbing another couple a few days earlier.

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. 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. 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.