Marcos Tomas Perez, a former Miami Heat security guard, has been sentenced to 36 months in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $1.9 million in restitution for stealing millions of dollars’ worth of team memorabilia, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.
U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez imposed the sentence on 62-year-old Perez, who was charged with transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce during the summer of 2025. Perez, a 25-year veteran of the Miami Police Department, worked as a Heat security guard from 2016 to 2021 and later as an NBA security employee from 2022 to 2025.
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones criticized Perez for betraying public trust, saying he “exploited his access to our beloved hometown team for personal gain.”
Court records show that Perez had access to a secured equipment room at the Kaseya Center, where hundreds of game-worn jerseys and memorabilia were stored for a future Miami Heat museum. Over three and a half years, he stole more than 400 items and sold over 100 of them online at prices far below market value, reportedly collecting around $2 million. A game-worn LeBron James NBA Finals jersey, for instance, sold for $100,000 online but later fetched $3.7 million at Sotheby’s.
The theft gained national attention in July 2025 when NBA analyst Amin Elhassan revealed on The Dan LeBatard Show that the Miami Heat were at the center of the largest sports memorabilia heist in U.S. history, with allegations involving a police officer and an NBA-affiliated individual.
On April 3, 2025, authorities executed a search warrant at Perez’s home, recovering nearly 300 additional stolen jerseys and memorabilia, which the team confirmed were taken from their facility.
