A fictional police commissioner once said you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain and that appears to be the case for Lieutenant Dan.


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Lieutenant Dan has become the internet’s latest folk hero for refusing to abandon his sailboat in Tampa Bay despite Hurricane Milton’s impending arrival. But it turns out the tatted amputee sailor may have a dark past, which includes punching a cop, trying to set a woman on fire and possibly not even owning the boat he is so loyal to.


Joseph John Malinowski, aka Lieutenant Dan, first became a viral sensation when Tampa TikToker Terrence Concannon started showing videos of the 54-year-old casually dismissing Milton while hanging out in his boat.


“I put my faith in God. I don’t put my faith in man,” Dan said in a video. “God told me to come out here and get a boat. I came out here and got a boat. Everything he’s been telling me the last few days, I’m doing the right thing. He got my back. I’m in good shape. I ain’t sweating it.”



The appeal of Lt. Dan is obvious, as he is the exact type of character who’s beloved by the terminally online: a confident weirdo who has an internal logic that is both confusing and a bit inspiring. A Floridian refusing to abandon ship despite a hurricane on the way? Sounds about right. There has even been a GoFundMe started by Concannon to buy Malinowski a new boat which has raised over $42,000 so far.


But in a twist that’s become all too common with viral sensations, it turns out Dan may have been less of a wholesome kook and more of a legitimately bad dude. Shortly after his fame reached its peak, people began to point out that this dude has been arrested… a lot.



Now, having run-ins with the law isn’t an inherently bad thing, especially considering that a lot of his arrests appear to be related to traffic violations and not appearing in court. However, a few of these are less mischievous and more troubling.


Malinowski spent a year in jail after he assaulted a police officer during a confrontation at the Irish Brigade Bar in Lake Worth Beach. The manager of the bar reportedly called the cops because Malinowski was breaking glass and screaming. When an officer tried to remove Malinowski from the premises, he punched him.


Malinowski was released, but in 2023, he was arrested by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department on suspicion of aggravated battery. According to court records, a woman complained that Malinowski had doused her in gasoline during an argument while she was holding a lit cigarette. However, the case was dropped by prosecutors without any official explanation.


To top it all off, the legendary boat may not actually belong to Lt. Dan. Per the Orlando Sentinel, Malinowski is due in state criminal court later this month in Tampa over whether or not the sailboat legally belongs to him.


Of course, there may be other factors at play here. Most notably, potential substance abuse or mental health issues might not be getting addressed properly. According to court records, after Malinowski was arrested for assaulting the cop, he was sent to the hospital to be treated for injuries. While there, he told nurses that he wanted deputies to shoot him in the head and shouted that he wanted to die. He also reportedly urinated himself in the back of a police cruiser.


So is Malinowski the roguish rapscallion we all initially believed he was? Or a monster who routinely enacts violence and chaos on people around him? It’s difficult to say, but ultimately, this may serve as an important lesson for all of us about our parasocial relationships with total strangers who become internet celebrities. Perhaps it’s best to withhold judgment until all information has been gathered and shared about a person.


But realistically, most of us will continue to ignore that level of nuance and champion the next online superstar until they too are revealed to be kinda shitty.