The worried daughter of viral one-legged hurricane resister “Lieutenant Dan” has slammed the influencers and donors who funded her father, saying they enabled her father's drug use and how he “quickly He claimed that he was sending them to a “stage graveyard.”
Ashley Ann Malinowski called for an end to all funds going to her father, Joseph Malinowski, who received national attention for refusing to get off a boat in Tampa before Hurricane Milton.
The sailor was missing his leg from the shin down and was nicknamed “Lieutenant Dan'' due to his resemblance to Gary Sinise's character in the 1994 film “Forrest Gump.''
“Lt. Dan could have done without that kind of money,” Anne Malinowski said in a profanity-laced rant on TikTok on Friday.
“Fucking celebrities on TikTok, if we all blow him up, he’s gonna die before we can enjoy that ship. Look at him, after you guys caught him, now he’s all these I’m getting really high in the video.”
“Lieutenant Dan” was featured on CNN's Weather Channel and TikTokker “Tampa” Terrence Concannon's livestream before the hurricane made landfall in Florida on Wednesday.
A defiant sailor clung to his yacht and challenged Hurricane Helen to “come get me” during an interview on Concannon's TikTok on Sept. 25. This interview has been viewed over 2.1 million times.
Riding on his fame, Concannon, 23, continued to share updates on his new friend throughout the storm, easily racking up millions of views on each post.
Concannon later set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Malinowski to buy a larger boat, raising more than $46,000 and describing him as “the kindest man ever ready to lend a hand.” called “people”.
Malinowski chased Hurricane Milton off his boat, ignoring Tampa Mayor Jane Castor's claims that he went to a shelter.
He was found in a boat tied to a dock in Tampa Bay.
Twitch streamer Adin Rosun later offered Malinowski a deal with streaming platform Kick and the purchase of a new boat for between $50,000 and $100,000.
The concerned daughter revealed that she had been worrying about her father's drug safety for the past 10 years.
“Just a weed? Just a weed? Yes, I'm his daughter and I had to watch that guy for 10 years to make sure he was alive, and now… He will have it all and will probably die from it.”
Malinowski said she tries not to spend “a lot of energy” caring for her father other than making sure “he's alive.”
“You guys made him famous and gave him this money, so you're going to put him in an early grave,” she said, holding back tears.
Malinowski claimed that the influencers were using her father to boost their social media channels and that they had “no idea what they were doing” when it came to supporting Malinowski.
“Actually, no one cares about him. You guys are just using him to make him famous, to make yourself more famous, to make yourself look good, but no one cares about him. I don’t care either.”
'Lieutenant Dan's checkered past has resurfaced after he became internet famous for disobeying warnings from authorities and jumping out of a boat after a storm had passed.
He had dozens of arrests in North Carolina and Florida dating back to at least 2006, according to court records reviewed by the newspaper.
Most of the charges are for traffic violations or failure to appear in court, but arrests have also been made for everything from drug possession to attempted trespassing and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
