Shocking footage shows a Los Angeles security guard getting sprayed in the face during one of the recent smash-and-grab robberies plaguing California.

The clip released by the LAPD shows a hooded and masked man nonchalantly strolling through a Nordstrom department store, before speeding up to cut off a guard walking toward a door.

He suddenly sprays him — running away as the staffer tumbles to the floor while clutching at his face.

The employee, with “Security” clearly marked on the back of his jacket, tries to get up, and almost knocks over store displays as he stumbles around while still in clear distress, his hands wiping his eyes.

Police earlier said the crook was one of about five thieves, one wearing a bright orange wig, who snatched high-end handbags worth around $25,000 from the Canoga Park store on Nov. 24.

The guard received medical help at the scene for the bear spray and made a full recovery, police previously said.

The Nordstrom raid was one of nearly a dozen in LA in just a 10-day spree, with many others across the Golden State last month.

The newly released video came as LAPD chief Michel Moore once again blamed the state’s zero-bail policy for the rise in such crimes.

“When we worry about how we’re going to deter further attacks … there’s a preventive measure that is absent,” Moore told KNBC News.

“We’re arresting people over and over again” for crimes that stall with the “chronic offender out in our community and committing new crimes,” he said.

With most free for months until their court cases, “many people can look at them and say, ‘What was the consequence of their offense? They’re still here … There is no punishment,'” he complained.

He blamed it also on a sharp rise in auto crimes as well as gun possession offenses, which are also zero-bail.

“We had a woman that was arrested for carrying a firearm in Los Angeles just two months ago. The next day she was already back out in the street, picked up another gun and took a hostage,” Moore recalled.

The suspect is only now in custody “because she fired her second pistol at the officers,” leading to attempted murder charges, he said.

“But she should never have been out,” he insisted, saying she wouldn’t have been “if we had the provisions that we had just two years ago.”

California’s statewide policy of imposing no bail for misdemeanors and lower-level felonies was introduced last year to help reduce the jail population at the height of the pandemic.

Although it was due to end late last year, it has been kept in place within the LA County Superior Court system.

Even so, District Attorney George Gascón — who supports ending bail across the board for misdemeanor, non-violent and non-serious felony offenses — has vowed to be tough on the smash-and-grab gangs.