Former Heat security guard pleads guilty to stealing, selling merchandise worth millions

A former Miami Heat security officer has pleaded guilty to transporting and selling millions of dollars’ worth of stolen game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia, federal officials announced.

Marcos Thomas Perez, 62, worked for the Heat from 2016 to 2021 and later as an NBA security employee from 2022 to 2025. A retired Miami police officer,

Perez admitted to stealing more than 400 jerseys and other items from a secured equipment room at the Kaseya Center, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and the FBI.

The equipment room held memorabilia the organization intended to showcase in a future team museum.

Perez was among a small group of employees with access through his game-day security role.

Over a three-year period, prosecutors said Perez sold more than 100 stolen items for about $1.9 million.

He shipped them across state lines, often at heavily discounted prices. Among the sales was a Miami Heat jersey worn by LeBron James during the NBA Finals.

Perez sold it for roughly $100,000. The same jersey later went for $3.7 million at a Sotheby’s auction.

Perez is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date.

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