By DANIEL MATTHEWS, US SENIOR SPORTS WRITER and ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 20:13 EST, 23 January 2026 | Updated: 20:13 EST, 23 January 2026
A former security officer for the Miami Heat has been sentenced to three years in federal prison - and ordered to pay nearly $2million in restitution - after they stole hundreds of game-worn jerseys and other prized memorabilia.
Marcos Thomas Perez, 62, pleaded guilty last summer to transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce. He has now been sentenced.
Perez worked for the Heat between 2016 and 2021 before serving as a NBA security employee from 2022 to 2025. He had previously spent 25 years with the Miami Police Department.
The 62-year-old was found to have stolen more than 400 jerseys and other valuable items from a secured equipment room. He went on to sell the items through various online marketplaces, according to federal prosecutors and the FBI.
Perez was one of only a few employees with access to the equipment room because he worked on gameday security detail at the Kaseya Center.
The team used the equipment room to store memorabilia that was planned to go on display in a future team museum.
A former security officer for the Miami Heat sold a Miami Heat jersey worn by LeBron James
They were sentenced to three years in prison for stealing jerseys and other prized memorabilia
Over a three-year period, authorities say, Perez sold more than 100 stolen items for approximately $1.9 million and shipped them across state lines, often at bargain prices.
They say he sold a Miami Heat jersey LeBron James wore during the NBA Finals for approximately $100,000. That same jersey later sold at a Sotheby´s auction for $3.7million.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Perez´s home last April and recovered nearly 300 additional stolen game-worn jerseys and memorabilia, officials said. The Miami Heat confirmed the items had been stolen from their facility.
'This defendant was a former police officer who betrayed the public trust and exploited his access to our beloved hometown team for personal gain,' US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quinones said in a statement.
'The Miami Heat represent excellence built through hard work and discipline in South Florida - and this conduct was the opposite.'