Lieutenant Dan (Photo via @BrianEntin/X)
Lieutenant Dan, the Tampa Bay man who went viral after refusing to leave his boat ahead of Hurricane Milton, has survived.
The authorities had urged Lt. Dan to vacate the area where his sailboat was docked before the approaching weather system, but he decided against leaving despite fears over one of the worst hurricanes in history hitting Florida on Wednesday.
It turns out he was alive and well as of late Wednesday night, with NewsNation’s Brian Entin providing an update via a recording after things died down.
“I’m fine,” he insisted.
Check it out in the video below:
Lieutenant Dan is okay! pic.twitter.com/0uthxRigRT
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) October 10, 2024
“He was passed out 🤣He came out looking around like, is it here yet?” someone joked in the comments.
“And at least $20K richer from his GoFundMe that can go towards paying off his legal fees from where he recently served time in prison. He played you guys like a violin 🎻.” another user said.
— Happy Captain (@EODHappyCaptain) October 10, 2024
So, Who Is Lieutenant Dan?
Lieutenant Dan’s real name is Joseph Malinowski.
He became famous after a clip surfaced on social media showing him refusing to leave the sailboat where he lives. He’s also missing a leg.
“I’m not going anywhere because the safest place to be is on a boat in a flood,” he said before the storm. “We learned that with Noah. Everyone who stayed on land drowned. Noah and the animals lived.”
For everyone worried about “Lieutenant Dan” – I just talked to him. His real name is Joseph Malinowski.
He says he is going to stay on his sailboat in the Tampa Bay. pic.twitter.com/UJWE7EAazt— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) October 9, 2024
Malinowski also refused help from concerned citizens and remained adamant he was going nowhere, even after Tampa police chief Lee Bercaw visited and asked him to seek shelter elsewhere.
“You’re all robots,” he said. “You’re all sheep, following the masses.”
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said in a midday press conference on Wednesday that Malinowski had been rescued and taken to a shelter. However, he returned to his boat by afternoon.
