A viral Fort Lauderdale baker thought her missing cinnamon rolls were stolen. Turns out, they went missing during an immigration bust.
College student Julie Pierre, 21, feared the worst when her 350 rolls failed to arrive at Hollywood’s Yellow Green Farmers Market last Saturday — and suspected the Uber courier had vanished with her sweet delivery (valued at $3,100).
“Our Uber driver stole over 300 cinnamon rolls,” she posted on social media, sharing screenshots of the order with the combined 476,000 followers of her bakery, Roll & Dough. “I don’t think you guys understand how unbelievable that is.”
Except there was a hitch in this heist theory: It never happened.
The Uber driver had, in fact, been “taken into custody” by U.S. Border Patrol during the delivery, according to officials with the Sunrise Police Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Agents arrested the driver, Ivan Dario Rico Molano, around 8:50 a.m. Aug. 22 on southbound Interstate 95 near Sheridan Street “following a records check on a silver Kia Carnival,” a CBP spokesperson said via email on Friday.
Molano, a Colombian citizen, “admitted to being in the United States without legal authorization” and was “transported to the Dania Beach Border Patrol Station for processing,” the spokesperson added. “Records indicate he entered the United States legally in May 2021, but remained beyond his authorized period of stay.”
In a statement to the Sun Sentinel, Officer Victor Fortune, a Sunrise police spokesperson, confirmed that Molano was taken into custody. “During the encounter with U.S. Border Patrol [CBP], the driver was permitted to contact another individual to take possession of the vehicle, which contained the cinnamon rolls and associated storage containers,” Fortune said.
Sunrise police returned the pastries to Pierre on Thursday, Fortune added.
But it was too late. “We had to throw them all away,” Pierre said. “We’re still out $3,100. Stolen or not, we suffered a loss.”
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Roll and Dough owner Julie Pierre of Fort Lauderdale spoke to Sunrise police officers at her Sunrise commissary bakery on Tuesday after hundreds of her cinnamon rolls went missing. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
‘Strange and wild situation’
In an Instagram post on Thursday, Pierre apologized for accusing the Uber driver of stealing, adding: “When we first spoke publicly, we were sharing the information that we had at the moment. I am deeply sorry for Ivan and his family experiencing this. I hope that Ivan and his family are able to get reunited together.”
The GoFundMe account she created after the rolls went missing remains active, raising more than $4,130 as of Friday afternoon. Pierre said she plans to donate “a certain amount of funds” toward the Uber driver’s legal aid.
“It was just a strange and wild situation,” Pierre said. “I feel bad for Ivan, but I felt I had a responsibility to tell my fans the truth as I learned it, even if I had to correct myself later.”
Pierre told the Sun Sentinel that Uber refunded the cost of her rideshare order.
Uber initially “removed the driver’s access to the platform” after the theft accusation, spokesperson Sarah Casasnovas said via email on Tuesday. She did not respond to a follow-up inquiry on Friday regarding the driver’s arrest.
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
People line up at Roll & Dough at Yellow Green Farmers Market in Hollywood on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A viral sensation
Roll & Dough has attracted hundreds of customers to its farmers market stall since it began selling Japanese milk bread cinnamon rolls there on Aug. 1, turning out flavors such as apple pie, blueberry cobbler and Biscoff cookie butter.
Pierre, a Florida International University student majoring in criminal justice, said she created her cinnamon roll side hustle as a survival strategy after her financial aid got delayed.
At her strip-mall commissary kitchen in west Sunrise, Pierre and three assistant bakers take turns rolling and sheeting dough, before covering it in fillings such as blueberry streusel and cinnamon-coated apples that she mixes by hand. She scratch-bakes 850 rolls each week to sell at the market on weekends.
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Roll & Dough owner Julie Pierre with apple and blueberry fillings for her popular cinnamon rolls. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Ten straight hours of baking are edited into 90-second reels of prep work on Roll & Dough’s social pages, which Pierre, who is soft-spoken yet brutally honest, overlays with confessional voiceovers.
“My body is traumatized from the amount of work I put myself through,” Pierre said in a recent video. “But this kitchen makes me feel like I’m not working despite the fact that I clearly am.”
Pierre said it’s her narrations that “probably made me go viral.”
“It was insane. I still don’t believe the bakery is this big. It hasn’t really settled in my mind yet,” said Pierre, who plans to open a brick-and-mortar bakery in Fort Lauderdale’s Thrive District this fall.
Last Saturday, customers waited in line at Roll & Dough’s stall, while news of the missing rolls spread.
“I’m not sure Julie knows how big she is,” said Wendy Almonte, who stood second in line as the stall opened at 11 a.m. “She has a goldmine in her hands.”
Sun Sentinel features writer Phillip Valys can be reached at pvalys@sunsentinel.com or Twitter/X @philvalys.
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Roll & Dough owner Julie Pierre prepares fillings in Sunrise on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Roll & Dough offerings are displayed at Yellow Green Farmers Market in Hollywood on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)