Former Miami Heat security officer Marcos Tomas Perez was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution after stealing hundreds of game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia and selling many items across state lines.
U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez handed down a 36-month federal prison sentence to Marcos Tomas Perez, 62, of Miami, after Perez pleaded guilty to transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce. The court also ordered $1.8 million in restitution tied to the theft and sales of the items. The sentence follows an investigation that traced a long-running theft scheme back to Perez’s access and actions while on duty.
Perez is a 25-year retired veteran of the City of Miami Police Department who worked as a security officer for the Miami Heat from 2016 to 2021 and later as an NBA security employee from 2022 to 2025. While on game-day security detail at the Kaseya Center, he had access to a secured equipment room that housed hundreds of game-worn jerseys and memorabilia that were being set aside for a future Miami Heat Museum. That access, prosecutors say, gave him the opportunity to take items that were meant to be preserved and displayed for fans and the team’s history.
According to court filings, Perez stole more than 400 jerseys and other items from the secured room over several years. Over about a three-and-a-half-year period he sold more than 100 of those stolen items on online marketplaces, often pricing them well below market value to move them quickly. The pattern of underpriced sales helped obscure the scale of the theft and allowed the items to be shipped across state lines, which triggered federal charges.
One striking example prosecutors highlighted involved a game-worn LeBron James Miami Heat NBA Finals jersey. Perez sold that jersey for approximately $100,000, while that same jersey later fetched $3.7 million at a Sotheby’s auction. The gap between what Perez obtained and what the market would later prove the item to be worth is part of the restitution calculation and underscores how valuable some of the stolen pieces were. Investigators say that many of the items taken were rare or singular pieces tied to major moments in the team’s history.
On April 3, 2025, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Perez’s residence and recovered nearly 300 additional game-worn jerseys and memorabilia. The Miami Heat confirmed those recovered items had been taken from their facility and identified many of them as part of the missing collection. The caches found at Perez’s home expanded the list of stolen items and tightened the link between the inventory at the arena and what appeared in resale listings online.
Officials weighed in on the case. “This defendant was a former police officer who betrayed the public trust and exploited his access to our beloved hometown team for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “The Miami Heat represent excellence built through hard work and discipline in South Florida — and this conduct was the opposite. This sentence and restitution order make clear that no badge, no past service, and no proximity to prestige shields anyone from accountability under the law.”
The announcement of the sentence and restitution was made by U.S. Attorney Reding Quiñones and Special Agent in Charge Brett D. Skiles of the FBI, Miami Field Office. FBI Miami led the investigation into the thefts, with valuable assistance from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Miami Division, and the Miami Police Department. Those combined efforts tied online sales and shipping records back to Perez and helped recover a substantial portion of the missing inventory.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Moore and Jon Juenger prosecuted the case, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Raemy Charest-Turken handled asset forfeiture matters related to the recovered items and proceeds. Court records list the matter under case number 25-cr-20346 in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Those filings contain details about the scope of the thefts, the recovered property, and the government’s rationale for the restitution amount.
The sentence and ordered restitution reflect the federal view that exploiting a position of trust to enrich oneself at the expense of a public-facing institution will carry serious consequences. Beyond prison time, the financial penalties aim to recoup what was lost and to restore, where possible, items to rightful custody. The case also serves as a reminder that access and proximity to prized artifacts carry responsibility, and that law enforcement will pursue complex interstate schemes involving stolen cultural and sports property.
