Florida'lı fırıncının 3 bin $ değerindeki 400 tarçınlı böreği teslimatın ortasında kayboldu: 5 gün sonra polis her birini buldu

Florida baker's 400 cinnamon rolls worth $3,000 vanished mid-delivery — 5 days later police found every one

Mike Crisolago

Wed, September 2, 2026 at 1:30 PM GMT+3 6 min read

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ABC 7 News

Hundreds of cinnamon rolls initially believed to have been stolen from a South Florida bakery have been recovered, though the bakery's owner says the incident still cost her some serious dough.

In an August 22 social media post, Julie Pierre, the owner of Roll and Dough bakery in Sunrise, noted that around $3,000 worth of cinnamon buns destined for a local farmer's market never arrived — putting the Uber delivery driver in the hot seat.

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"Nearly 400 of our cinnamon rolls disappeared during an Uber delivery," Pierre later explained on social media. "As a 21-year-old running a small business on my own, I was scared, overwhelmed and trying to recover days of work and thousands of dollars in products."

Pierre, who started the baking side hustle to help pay for her criminal justice studies at Florida International University, added that with little explanation as to why the order was missing, Uber advised her to file a police report. Meanwhile, her social media following — which includes hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok — caused the story to spread quickly.

Five days later, police found the stray cinnamon buns and discovered why they were never delivered — leaving Pierre to exclaim, simply, that "it's a little insane."

The rolls were found, but the financial loss was baked in

Pierre added, on social media, that five days after the cinnamon rolls vanished, detectives informed her that the Uber driver was "detained by immigration authorities during the delivery."

Law enforcement officials confirmed to local media that the driver, Ivan Dario Rico Molano of Colombia, "admitted to being in the United States without legal authorization" and was taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection.

After his arrest, the driver reportedly called someone to pick up his car — which they did, without knowledge of the delivery. Days later, the person called local police about the sweets.

"We had to throw them all away," Pierre told the Tampa Bay Times of the returned cinnamon rolls. "We're still out $3,100. Stolen or not, we suffered a loss."

Neither Pierre nor Uber responded to Moneywise's request for comment, but Uber's general terms and conditions for businesses note that it bears "no liability" for "any loss, damage, non-delivery or delay in the delivery of items."

Pierre did offer an apology on social media, though, for describing the situation as a theft, while pledging to donate a portion of her bakery's proceeds to help pay for the driver's legal counsel.

Still, the icing on the bun after all of this is that Pierre's bakery side hustle looks to be on a roll. With her growing customer base, Pierre started a GoFundMe to help raise cash to expand production infrastructure and, appropriately, "secure a reliable vehicle that can be used to transport our products."

The fundraiser currently sits at nearly $4,200 — more than halfway to its $7,000 goal.

How to keep a side hustle on a roll — even when things go wrong

Thirty-three percent of Americans currently have a side hustle, according to a 2026 survey, pulling in an average of $1,242 per month — extra cash that 80% of side hustlers said "improves their quality of life" while nearly half said "contributes to long-term financial security."

Pierre's example, though, shows just how quickly one financial blow can impact business and, potentially, your financial stability.

Experts recommend different ways to help insulate your side hustle from unforeseen money losses, including the following three simple steps you can start working toward today:

1. Build yourself a cash buffer

Cash buffer days are essentially the number of days your cash reserves could keep your small business or side hustle afloat during an unexpected crisis.

Chase Bank says to calculate all of your incoming revenue (cash inflow), the money your business spends daily (cash outflow) and how much money you have on hand at the end of the day across all your business' accounts (cash balance).

Dividing the cash balance by the cash outflow lets you see how many cash buffer days you have available. Chase adds that every business requires a different number of buffer days, while others, like the non-profit SCORE — which mentors and educates entrepreneurs — advises saving three to six months of operating costs in an emergency fund by banking 10% of your monthly revenue.

2. Get insured

It's just a side hustle, right? Why does it need insurance?

While some may not, side hustles that operate out of your own home — or other people's homes — or simply require you to be on the move, could benefit from business insurance. Damages or thefts that occur to businesses that work out of homes aren't necessarily covered by homeowner's insurance, while regular auto insurance may not cover car accidents related to your side gig.

As such, it could be worth exploring how insurance coverage could potentially save you hundreds or thousands in losses if your side hustle goes sideways.

3. Keep an eye out for red flags

Sometimes the best protection is catching an issue before it becomes a major problem. By regularly tracking sales, profits, orders and web metrics, among other business stats, you may spot a vulnerability before it blows up into a much bigger issue, allowing you to handle it early and work toward preventing it down the line.

Simple strategies like these could help keep your side gig afloat in times of economic turbulence — allowing you to have your cinnamon roll and eat it too.