Suspected Florida cinnamon roll bandit wasn’t a thief — he was detained by immigration agents, bakery says

The case of an Uber courier accused of disappearing with thousands of dollars’ worth of cinnamon rolls in South Florida has taken a turn.

Julie Pierre, founder of South Florida-based viral bakery business Roll and Dough, initially believed the driver she hired to deliver 400 cinnamon rolls to a farmers’ market took off with the pastries after they never made it to their destination on Saturday.

The 21-year-old took to social media on Thursday to say that she finally got the real story.

“Based on the limited information available to us at the time, we believed our cinnamon rolls had been stolen,” Roll and Dough said in a statement posted on Instagram. “Uber instructed us to file a police report, so we followed their guidance.”

“We did not know that the carrier, Ivan, had been detained by immigration authorities during the delivery,” the statement continued.

Sunrise Police confirmed the driver was taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) in Hollywood while he was en route to deliver the cinnamon rolls.

In a statement, a CBP spokesperson said the driver, Ivan Dario Rico Molano, was stopped at around 8:50 a.m. on Interstate 95 southbound near Sheridan Street “following a records check on a silver Kia Carnival.”

“The registered owner was identified as an alien without legal immigration status. During the encounter, the driver, identified as Ivan Dario Rico Molano, a citizen of Colombia, admitted to being in the United States without legal authorization,” the spokesperson said. “Mr. Molano was arrested and transported to the Dania Beach Border Patrol Station for processing. Records indicate he entered the United States legally in May 2021, but remained beyond his authorized period of stay.”

Rico Molano then contacted someone to take the vehicle, which had the storage containers with Roll and Dough’s cinnamon rolls inside, police said.

Pierre said a family member of the driver found the cinnamon rolls and returned them to the police station, where Roll and Dough were able to recover them.

“Based on what we now know, Ivan did not intentionally steal our cinnamon rolls. We are sincerely sorry that we described the situation that way before learning the complete circumstances,” the statement read. “We shared what we genuinely understood at the time, and now that detectives have provided us with new information, we are publicly correcting the record.”

The business also said they wanted to donate a portion of their proceeds to help the driver’s family and cover any legal fees.