Lieutenant Dan’s mugshots go viral but student behind fundraiser says his ‘past does not define him’

TAMPA, FLORIDA: A Tampa man, now known on TikTok as “Lieutenant Dan", became an Internet sensation overnight, but it turns out there's more to the story than meets the eye.

The one-legged sailor, real name Joseph Malinowski, went viral after surviving Hurricane Helene on his boat, refusing to leave even when things got rough. Thanks to Terrence Concannon — a kind-hearted student at the University of Tampa — Dan’s story spread like wildfire on TikTok, and people couldn’t help but fall in love with him.

But now his dark past has surfaced, raising some serious eyebrows.

Concannon, 23, started a GoFundMe page for Dan and donations have been flooding in. In fact, the fundraiser has already hit over $45,000 at the time of publication.

One of the most high-profile people to jump on the bandwagon was streamer Adin Ross, who offered to buy Dan a new boat and give him a shot at live-streaming his daily life on a platform called Live Kick.

Lieutenant Dan's bumpy road with the law

Just as Dan’s internet fame started soaring, the Internet did what the internet does best - dig into his past. And what they found wasn’t exactly squeaky clean. It turns out Dan’s rap sheet goes back more than a decade, with over 70 run-ins with the cops in Florida and North Carolina since 2012.

Dan’s criminal record includes drug possession, assault, resisting arrest, burglary, and battery. And as his mugshots started popping up online, the feel-good story started to take a darker turn.

But here’s the thing - Concannon says he had no idea about Dan’s past when he offered to help, and honestly he doesn’t care.

"He never mentioned anything about it. I had no idea about [the past] and I am not one to judge. All I saw was a guy needing help and I was willing to give it," Concannon told the Daily Mail.

It all started about a month ago when Concannon first met Dan. He would walk past Dan’s boat on his way home from campus.

"I would walk by him often, and then one day, the motor on his boat went out and he was getting sucked under a bridge, so he yelled out. He threw me the rope, and I pulled him in," Concannon recalled. That moment kicked off their unexpected friendship.

Then Hurricane Helene came rolling in. While Concannon was worried about Dan’s safety, the latter wasn’t having it. "He was like, 'Nope, I’m sticking this one out,'" Concannon said. After the storm, Concannon went to check on Dan — and from there he started filming TikToks about the sailor’s wild lifestyle. Next thing you know, Dan’s story blew up online.

Adin Ross pulls back after learning about Dan's past

Everything seemed to be going great until Internet sleuths started pulling up Dan’s less-than-perfect past. One of the biggest twists came when Adin Ross, who had promised to buy Dan a new boat, changed his mind. After learning about Dan’s criminal record, Ross apparently decided to back out of the deal.

Dan took to TikTok and said he had never asked Ross for the boat in the first place.

"He came to me—I never asked for it," Dan explained. "Then he starts singing about my history. He should have done his due diligence. I didn’t ask you for it, you offered it, I agreed. He asked me to be on Kick 100 hours a month, I said no problem, I’m down for that. Now, he’s discussing my history, and the deal is done."

Dan’s legal troubles aren’t ancient history. The most recent offense happened not too long ago - he served six months in prison for punching a police officer in the nose and was released in 2022.

Not long after that, he was accused of setting a park bench on fire and splashing gasoline on a woman who said she feared for her life. But the case was mysteriously dropped, and no one seems to know why.

Dan’s had some boat drama too. Last year, he allegedly sank another sailboat off Florida’s east coast, and now he’s caught up in a legal dispute over who really owns his current boat. He’s due in court later this year to sort it all out.

Despite all this, Dan insists he’s not the villain people are making him out to be. In his words, he’s innocent of all the charges. "I went to prison, I did jail time, but I can tell you—I am innocent of all the charges!" the sailor said in one of his videos.

"I’ve been charged with battery, I never even saw the cop. I went to prison for a year. But karma and God are real."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.