Joseph John Malinowski, who went viral last week amid Hurricane Milton’s landfall in Florida and became known locally as “Lieutenant Dan,” has been arrested.
Malinowski, 54, was arrested by the Tampa Police Department on Friday and charged with two outstanding warrants for failure to appear in court, and one misdemeanor charge of trespassing in a city park after warning, according to Hillsborough County inmate records reviewed by PEOPLE.
According to the county inmate records, Malinowski remains in jail as of Friday afternoon without the possibility of posting a bond. Hillsborough County records describe Malinowski as a “transient” individual whose occupation is listed as “TikTok Star.”
A spokesperson for the Tampa Police Department tells PEOPLE officers “met with Malinowski at Bayshore Linear Park and Dock” on Thursday over concerns he was trespassing in the park.
“Malinowski informed officers that he did not have an accessible marine sanitation device aboard his unregistered vessel and did not have a record of proper disposal of waste, creating a public health hazard,” Verliz Williams, a public information officer with the Tampa Police Department, says. “He was instructed to leave the park; however, he was found to be still there this morning, even after numerous warnings.”
Williams added that officers impounded Malinowski’s boat and he was taken to Orient Road Jail in Tampa, Fla.
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Malinowski went viral last week after several news outlets reported on his refusal to leave his sail boat as Hurricane Milton was set to make landfall.
“My life, this is nothing compared to what I’ve been through,” Malinowski told The National Desk. “This doesn’t scare me. It’s not even a minor inconvenience.”
The outlet reported that local police had threatened at one point to arrest Malinowski in order to move him out of the storm’s path for his own safety.
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Malinowski’s nickname “Lieutenant Dan” is a reference to the character in the 1994 film Forrest Gump played by actor Gary Sinise.
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The attention surrounding Malinowski’s internet fame also drew eyes to his past criminal history, PEOPLE previously reported.
Records reviewed last week by PEOPLE verified a report by The Orlando Sentinel that shed light on Malinowski’s criminal history, including a one-year prison sentence for “punching a police officer in the nose” and a separate case last year in which he was accused of setting a park bench on fire and then splashing gasoline on a woman nearby, who “feared for her life.”
A GoFundMe was launched late last month in support of Malinowski. The fundraiser was launched by a Tampa resident named Terrence Concannon, who said the money was being raised to surprise Malinowski with a new boat.
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