Hurricane Milton hero arrested. He was not on a boat but in a comfortable shelter

It ended with an arrest the controversial adventure of Joseph Malinovsky, who became the most famous sailor in the United States in a few days(we had also told you about it here).

“I will never abandon my boat!”

His story was born in late September and early October when Joseph Malinovski, 54, refused to abandon his 6-meter sailboat moored in Tampa Bay, Florida, despite being banned from being aboard by police during Hurricane Helene and the subsequent Milton that hit Florida. Malinovsky, nicknamed Lieutenant Dan, organized a social campaign on Tik Tok that quickly went viral.

He tells how he lives on a small boat despite losing a leg at age 16 and survives the hurricane on board, refusing to disembark. He also launches a fundraising campaign that gets him $45,000 , earmarked to finance the purchase of a new boat. In short, he becomes a hero to the U.S. public. His account via social media is emotional: Hurricane Milton arrives and Malinovsky narrates that he weathered the storm and saved the boat as hundreds of boats were destroyed by the hurricane’s fury.

It was all a lie

The twist that undermines his reputation as a social hero occurs a few days later when the police arrest him and reveal that Lieutenant Dan actually got separated from his “little boat” during the hurricane and was hospitalized in an overland shelter. True, the boat although losing its mast, is safe but he was not on board. And we come to the causes of the arrest. Two warrants are hanging over Malinovsky’s head for failure to appear in court. The main charge involves assault on a woman he had attempted to set on fire. Other charges focus on drug possession, assault on a police officer , attempted burglary. The icing on the cake is the inability to prove that the boat he lived on was really his.