Summary of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 Laroche is a tall, skinny man with pale eyes and a sharp appearance. He is extremely passionate and driven. He has been working for the Seminole Tribe of Florida since he was twenty-one years old, setting up a plant nursery and an orchid-propagation laboratory on the tribe s reservation in Hollywood, Florida.#2 Laroche is a very unusual person. He is also the most moral amoral person I ve ever known. He loves doing things the hard way, especially if it means that he gets to do what he wants to do but also leaves everyone else wondering how he managed to get away with it.#3 I met John Laroche in Florida a few years ago. He was arrested with rare orchids he had stolen out of a swamp called the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve. He explained that the plants were going to be cloned and sold to orchid collectors around the world.#4 The trial took place in a courthouse south of Sanibel. Laroche was charged with illegally removing more than two hundred rare orchid and bromeliad plants from the Fakahatchee Swamp. He was also charged with criminal possession of endangered species and of illegally removing plant life from state property, both of which are punishable by jail time and fines.