A former Miami Heat security officer accused of selling stolen jerseys and other memorabilia worth millions of dollars made his initial appearance in federal court on Tuesday.
Marcos Thomas Perez, 62, of Miami, was charged with transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce.
A joint announcement from the Southern District of Florida and the Miami FBI said law enforcement executed a search warrant at Perez’s residence on April 3 and seized about 300 stolen game-worn jerseys and other valuable memorabilia. The Heat confirmed the items had been stolen from their facility.
The charging document said Perez sold the items to online brokers. Over a three-year period, authorities say Perez sold more than 100 stolen items for approximately $2 million and shipped them across state lines, often at bargain prices. They say Perez sold a Miami Heat jersey worn by LeBron James during the NBA Finals for approximately $100,000. That same jersey later sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $3.7 million.
Perez, a 25-year retired veteran of the Miami Police Department, worked for the Heat from 2016 to 2021 and as an NBA security employee from 2022 to 2025.
Perez worked on the game-day security detail at the Kaseya Center. He was among just a few employees with access to a secured equipment room that stored memorabilia the organization intended to display in a future team museum. The documents say Perez accessed the equipment room to steal, in all, more than 400 game-worn jerseys and other items.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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