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

“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.