Lieutenant Dan, the viral sailboat captain who hunkered down in his ship in Tampa Bay while Hurricane Milton slammed into the western coast of Florida, survived the worst of the storm.
Dan, who went viral thanks to videos by local TikToker Tampa Terrence, resisted the entreaties of millions of viewers, the local police department, and the Tampa mayor to seek shelter, insisting that he’d be safer during a flood on the water.
Though the worst danger of the storm may have passed, Dan, whose real name is Joseph Malinowski, is now facing the scrutiny of the internet. Posters are looking into his past as well as his motivations for refusing to evacuate, with some accusing him of doing it for money.
One massively viral video claimed that Malinowski did the whole thing for internet clout, pointing to the fact that on Facebook he lists himself as a “digital creator” and has a TikTok and an Instagram dating back years.
“There are people who are infirm, who are gravely ill, who have no cars, who cannot leave, who do not have options, and those people have my sympathies,” TikToker Mena Gavey said in a video she posted on X. “Those are the people that deserve our sympathy, not people who’ve decided that they wanna chase clout on the internet, not people who have $20,000 in a GoFundMe that they started three weeks ago, not people who came to Tampa to make a point, not people who chase internet fame.”
Gavey’s claims about Malinowski starting a GoFundMe three weeks ago are inaccurate.
Tampa Terrence opened a GoFundMe for Malinowski on Sept. 27, in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which raised almost $41,000.
The goal of the fundraiser is to buy Malinowski a new boat, Terrence wrote. On Wednesday, streamer Adin Ross told Malinowski he would buy him a new boat outright and get him a Kick streaming deal.
Tampa Terrence didn’t immediately respond to questions about what might happen to the GoFundMe money in light of the offer.
Gavey, though, also pointed to Malinowski’s extensive arrest record over the years. Alongside a crop of citations for possession of controlled substances and paraphernalia, Malinowski was once charged with a felony after a woman claimed that he tried to set her on fire with gasoline.
Malinowski also spent six months in a Florida prison after punching a police officer and has been hit with a slew of other charges over the years, including allegations that he abandoned a sunken sailboat.
The discussion swirled around Malinowski on Wednesday night as the storm raged. While some people thought that his criminal record disqualified him from any sympathy, others felt digging into his past for crimes he already did time for was unsavory while he was trying to survive.
“This lady in her million dollar home mad about a dude in a piece of crap dingy boat about to potentially die in a hurricane is wild,” posted @eatinerni under Gavey’s video.
“Digging up dirt on the past of anybody who goes the slightest bit viral is nasty work,” added @IceIceBrand0n. “This isn’t the win you think it is. You look & sound like a petty f’ing NARC!!!”
Other allegations about Malinowski also circulated linking him to a man with a similar name who is on the Wisconsin sex offender’s registry, but posters quickly jumped to his defense and pointed out that the two men didn’t share the same middle name.
“The most he had on his record was an aggravated assault felony which was dropped by the Palm Beach court. Whomever put out the exposé on him did not do their proper research,” posted @B1TCHEVAPORATE. “Please do research properly before you slander someone because the man doesn’t deserve this.”
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