Baker Thought Uber Driver Stole $3,000 Order During Delivery, Only to Discover ICE Had Arrested Him

For five days, a South Florida bakery thought an Uber courier had made off with 350 cinnamon rolls. The $3,000 (£2,200) order had gone missing, and the owner could not work out what had happened to it.

The driver had stolen nothing. He had been detained by U.S. Border Patrol while on his way to drop off the rolls, and the founder of Roll and Dough now says she wants to help him and his family.

Julie Pierre, 21, runs the Sunrise, Florida, business with fellow student Jovan Mitchell. They are known for their sweet treats with a Haitian twist.

Pierre hired a courier via Uber on Saturday, 22 August, to deliver the order to the Yellow Green Farmers Market in Hollywood. The pastries never arrived; she could not reach the courier, and Uber could not tell her what had gone wrong.

The company told her to file a police report, so she did. 'Uber instructed us to file a police report, so we followed their guidance,' the bakery said in a statement on Instagram. The app had logged a delivery in the early afternoon, but it was marked as failed, and the driver had stopped answering calls and texts. Pierre believed the order had been taken.

Her account of the missing rolls spread quickly online, and the story went viral. Pierre has said the team waited a couple of days before reporting the loss, partly because it was busy and partly because she wanted to understand what had gone wrong first.

How the Missing Cinnamon Rolls Turned Into an Immigration Case

What she did not know was that the driver, Ivan Dario Rico Molano, 33, had been pulled over that morning. According to a Border Patrol spokesperson, agents stopped a silver Kia Carnival at about 8:50 a.m. on Interstate 95 southbound near Sheridan Street, following a records check. Its registered owner had been identified as someone without legal immigration status, the spokesperson added.

Molano, a citizen of Colombia, 'admitted to being in the United States without legal authorisation,' the spokesperson said, and was taken to the Dania Beach Border Patrol Station for processing. According to the agency, he entered the country legally in May 2021 and later overstayed his visa.

The Sunrise Police Department, where Pierre had filed her report, confirmed the account. A department spokesperson wrote that its investigation determined 'a theft did not occur.'

Pierre said a relative had collected Molano's vehicle after the stop, with the crates of rolls still inside. The family later returned the rolls to a police station, where she picked up the order on Thursday, five days after it was baked.

She threw them out rather than risk anyone eating them. Uber reimbursed Pierre for the uncompleted delivery fee.

What the Uber Delivery Cost a 21-Year-Old Baker

Pierre wrote that the missing order left her scared and overwhelmed, as she tried to recover from days of work and thousands of dollars' worth of products. The rolls had been baked for a weekend market stall. Returned five days later, they were no longer fit to sell, so the labour and ingredients were a write-off.

Once the detectives explained the sequence of events, Pierre deleted her earlier videos and corrected the record publicly. She apologised to Molano and his family, said she does not support ICE, and offered to put part of the bakery's proceeds towards his legal costs if his relatives could be reached.

'My heart remains with Ivan and his family,' she wrote.

As strangers online tried to trace the driver's relatives, Pierre asked people not to share anyone's personal details publicly and to reach the bakery privately instead.

Molano's immigration case is continuing, and his current custody status is unclear.

She has kept the bakery's comments turned off, saying she did not want her page used to attack Molano, his family, or her business.