A former Miami Heat security worker and retired Miami police officer charged in a massive memorabilia theft that involved millions of dollars’ worth of game-used jerseys and other items was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday.
Marcos Thomas Perez, 62, pled guilty back in August to transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce following an FBI investigation.
According to court documents, on top of 36 months in prison, Perez was also ordered 24 months of supervised release and to pay around $1,889,931 in restitution.
Perez, a retired 25-year veteran of the Miami Police Department, was accused of stealing jerseys and other memorabilia and selling the items to online brokers, authorities said.
Perez worked for the Heat from 2016 to 2021, and also worked as an NBA security employee from 2022 to 2025.
During that time, Perez accessed a secured equipment room at Kaseya Center multiple times, stealing over 400 game-worn jerseys and other items, authorities said.
The items were being kept by the team for a future Miami Heat museum.
Over a three-year period, Perez sold over 100 stolen items for about $2 million, often selling them at prices well below market value, authorities said.
In one case, he sold a game-worn LeBron James Miami Heat NBA Finals jersey for approximately $100,000, and the same jersey later sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $3.7 million, prosecutors said.
On April 3, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Perez’s home and seized nearly 300 additional stolen game-worn jerseys and memorabilia, which the Heat confirmed had been stolen from their facility, prosecutors said.
Buschel said any items that were in Perez’s possession were taken by the FBI, and that people who obtained the other items are being asked to return them.
Miami Police confirmed Perez worked for the department from November 1992 to April 2016.
The massive theft was first reported by NBA insider Amin Elhassan on the popular sports podcast “The Dan Le Batard Show.”
“As it was described to me, this is one of the largest, if not the largest, memorabilia heist in the history of this country. In any sport,” Elhassan said on the podcast.
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