 DAYTONA BEACH --
Dennis Crouch had already slashed himself. And when he refused to drop his knife, Daytona Beach police Officer Betsy Cassidy decided she had no choice.
"Taser! Taser!" Cassidy shouted as she sent a two-pronged wire, packing 50,000 volts, at Crouch's chest. What happened next stunned everyone.
A Taser probe pierced the pocket of his khaki shirt -- and ignited the butane lighter inside. Crouch's pocket exploded in flames.
"The subject," recounted Sgt. Al Tolley in a subsequent report, "immediately dropped the knife."
Officers grabbed Crouch, threw him to the ground and rolled him around until the flames went out, Tolley said. The 53-year-old Daytona Beach man was taken to Halifax Medical Center with minor burns and two self-inflicted stab wounds in his stomach and chest.
Speaking by cell phone from his hospital bed Tuesday, Crouch said he had been drinking at the time and didn't remember everything that happened the night before.
"Why did they get into my house?" he asked of police. "I didn't invite them into my house. They came into my bedroom and shot me with the Taser, and it [the lighter] exploded."
The bizarre burning ended an evening that records show began with Crouch drinking at a friend's house Monday, then apparently becoming depressed about his medical and financial problems. Suddenly, he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed himself in the chest and stomach, police records show.
The friend got scared and called police about 9:20 p.m. Crouch fled for home on nearby North Grandview Avenue.
"He stuck the knife in his belly, ma'am, so I thought that was the time to call you," the friend told a 911 dispatcher during a 14-minute call. "And he was bleeding, so I said, 'Well, I can't put up with this.' "
When he got home, Crouch began arguing with his 54-year-old wife, Cecilia, about going to Las Vegas, according to police reports.
Police say Cecilia Crouch ran from her home in fear when her husband again went for a knife. Officers had to kick the door down to get into the apartment, according to reports. Crouch stood near a back bedroom with an 8-inch knife to his stomach.
 After repeated requests for Crouch to drop the knife, Cassidy went for her Taser. That's when the lighter ignited.
Officials with Taser International -- which manufactures the nonlethal weapon that uses a shock to incapacitate dangerous people -- said they've never heard of anything quite like this before.
"I would call this beyond a rare fluke," spokesman Steve Tuttle said.
Tolley said the department is investigating the Monday incident, but so far nothing seems to be amiss with the Taser.
Crouch didn't seem too concerned about his run-in with police and clearly had other priorities Tuesday night.
"You're burning my minutes," he said about his cell phone. "It's not 9 o'clock yet."
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