The encounter was captured this week by one of the shoppers themselves, Dustin Hart, who posted the clip on BitChute ... a right-wing-catering video sharing platform. It shows him and a woman walking into a Food4Less near San Diego with swastika-emblazoned masks.

He explains the masks are part of a protest they want to show off, which is meant to symbolize -- in their warped minds, anyway -- Governor Gavin Newsom's "fascist" lockdown rules ... which have apparently left Hart and co. pissed off and in the mood to cause a stir.

As they go around the aisles placing items in their cart, one of the grocery store's employees eventually confronts them and asks them to take the swastikas off. Of course, they refuse ... insisting they're not doing anything wrong, and hiding behind the First Amendment. The guy even offers them different masks as an alternative, but they say no.

That's when some sheriff's deputies arrive and try talking some sense into these bozos -- telling the couple they're in a privately owned, family-friendly store ... and that their masks are obviously offensive to people. Hart tries explaining why he's doing it -- again slamming Newsom and the quarantine guidelines -- and even makes a homophobic comment.

He says he's offended by the LGBT flag, but doesn't go calling cops when he sees it being flown in public. The officers aren't hearing it though, and they ask the couple to leave.

Neither Hart nor his companion were arrested -- they simply headed to the register, paid for their stuff and finally got the hell out. What's crazy is that this is the same town where a man was recently seen wearing a KKK-like white hood while grocery shopping too.