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Jacksonville man burned when he fires rocket at girlfriend
Shannon Kramerâs plans to fire a rocket toward his girlfriend went awry when the firework ricocheted inside his car and dived between his legs, bursting in a display that burned hair and skin from his feet to his groin, police said. Kramer, 35, told The Florida Times-Union he lit a fuse on the 6-inch-rocket, but wasnât able to get it out the window of his Ford Mustang before it went off.
| Dude, you're supposed to roll the window down, then light the fuse. |
Seconds later, after the rocket blasted around inside the car, Kramer was burned and temporarily blinded. "I thought I was dead," he said. "I couldnât see, I couldnât hear. I went to stand up and I couldnât walk." Kramer said he suffered second-degree burns and a cut on one leg. His eyelashes and a lot of body hair are gone and an outline of his sandals is burned onto his feet.
| "I am such a dumbass" is permanently scarred onto his forehead, courtesy of the Finger of God... |
| Look at the bright side, he avoided a Darwin award -- barely. |
Jacksonville police were called to the explosion about 9:30 p.m. Sunday and were told a man who had been threatening his girlfriend with a bomb had a mishap. Kramer said he was only playing a prank and was intending to fire the rocket out the window as he passed. Police referred the case to the State Attorneyâs Office, but prosecutors declined to charge Kramer, police spokesman Ken Jefferson said.
| "Yeah. I'd say he suffered enough when he burned off his testicle. That'll be more of a lesson to him than we could ever administer..." |
Kramer said the rocket, which resembled a bottle rocket, was the diameter of a golf ball. "I had a couple but this was the biggest," he said. "No more of those."
Posted by: TS 2004-03-30 |
