John Laroche is a sharply handsome guy, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his teeth, has the posture of al dente spaghetti and the nervous intensity of someone who wins a lot of video games. He is also an orchid thief, who, along with three Seminole Indians, was arrested with rare orchids they had stolen out of a place called the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, a wild swamp in South Florida filled with extraordinary plants and trees, including some that don't grow anywhere else in the world.