Man dies while trimming tree

A Carson City man who reportedly had infiltrated outlaw motorcycle gangs for the feds collapsed and died while trimming trees for his lawn care business Monday morning.

Dan Horrigan, 58, was pronounced dead about 10:30 a.m. as his body hung from the waist by rigging. Horrigan had secured himself 20 feet in the air to trim a tree just north of America's Best Value Inn on South Carson Street.

According to Deputy Richard Batien, a witness said Horrigan asked for some Gatorade and complained of thirst and dizziness.

"Then he just collapsed," the deputy said. When emergency crews responded, they found Horrigan deceased.

Horrigan, a 10th-degree black belt in Kenpo karate, was featured in a Nevada Appeal article in 2001 for his non-profit, Breakthrough Crime Prevention Program. Horrigan gave motivational speeches to children while demonstrating his martial arts skills by cracking coconuts with his hands, garnering him the nickname Coconut Dan, breaking bricks with his elbow and shattering bats with his shin.

More recently, Horrigan told his story to the Monterey Herald in California of infiltrating the Hells Angels and Mongols motorcycle clubs at the behest of the federal government.

"His 19 years of undercover work for the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have earned him the wrath of two of the most feared motorcycle clubs in the country - the Hells Angels and their arch rivals, the Mongols," the Monterey Herald story states.

Coroner Ruth Rhines said an autopsy this week may determine the cause of death.

On his Facebook page, Horrigan wrote: "My passion is raising money for charities by holding demonstrations where I break coconuts, bricks, bats, and ice. I'm one of the elite martial artists in the world in breaking techniques. I use these moves and techniques to show how to use the power for positive instead of negative. It gets people's attention so that I can witness to them and talk about drugs, alcohol, gangs etc."