JACKSONVILLE - Shannon Kramer said he planned it as a prank: He would light a small rocket and fire it out his car window at his girlfriend.
Some prank.
Kramer, 35, had no sooner lit the fuse on the 6-inch firework when it went off in his Ford Mustang, ricocheted madly and dived between his legs, bursting in a display that burned hair and skin from his feet to his groin, police said.
Kramer said he was temporarily blinded after the rocket went off.
"I thought I was dead," he said. "I couldn't see, I couldn't hear. I went to stand up, and I couldn't walk."
Kramer said the firework caused second-degree burns and a cut on one leg. It burned off his eyelashes and a lot of his body hair. It even scorched an outline of his sandals onto his feet.
Someone called Jacksonville police to the scene about 9:30 p.m. Sunday and told them a man had a mishap while threatening his girlfriend with a bomb.
Kramer said he was only playing a prank and had intended to fire the rocket out the window as he passed.
Police referred the case to the State Attorney's Office, but prosecutors declined to charge Kramer, police spokesman Ken Jefferson said.
Kramer said the rocket, which resembled a bottle rocket, was about the diameter of a golf ball.
"I had a couple, but this was the biggest," he said. "No more of those."
