Tampa Mayor Threatens To Take Viral Florida Man “Lieutenant Dan” Into Custody If He Doesn’t Evacuate Sailboat Ahead Of Hurricane Milton

Lieutenant Dan has captivated the nation. The Florida man's real name is Joseph Malinowski, and he's a disabled veteran who's missing a leg. And he quickly went viral yesterday after promising to ride out the impending Hurricane Milton on his sailboat in Tampa Bay. According to Malinowski, who goes by the nickname "Lieutenant Dan," he believes the safest place to be is on his 20-foot sailboat, which is also his full time home: “I’m not going anywhere. The safest place to be in a flood is on a boat. Okay? We learned that with Noah. Everyone that stayed on land drowned. Noah and the animals lived. I’m fine.” https://twitter.com/BrianEntin/status/1844028080618393818 But not everybody shares Lieutenant Dan's confidence. With Hurricane Milton being predicted to hit the Florida coast as a Category 4 storm, and being called a "once-in-a-century" storm, clearly a boat probably isn't the best place to ride out the hurricane. Many online, and even the mayor of Tampa Bay, have pleaded with Malinowski to leave the boat and head to a shelter as the storm quickly approaches. But despite the mayor announcing that they've got Lieutenant Dan to a shelter, it appears that he's still out there based on tweets from people who have recently gone to check on him: https://twitter.com/BrianEntin/status/1844043394722791811 And now, the mayor is threatening to force Malinowski to take shelter. During an appearance on CNN, Tampa Bay mayor Jane Castor said that the city may take Lieutenant Dan into custody "for his own good." "We have tried so many times with that individual to get him off of that boat, and the officers will eventually just take him into custody for his own good, because he's not going to survive in a sailboat in the bay with anywhere from 8 to 12 feet of storm surge." The mayor mentioned using the Baker Act, which is a Florida law that allows law enforcement to take individuals into custody on an involuntary hold for up to 72 hours for a mental health evaluation. https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1844133245019095100 Of course as the mayor mentioned, time is running out, if it hasn't already run out, as the storm moves closer and closer to the coast. Hopefully Lieutenant Dan makes it through - or somebody is able to get him to safety first.