A retired City of Miami Police veteran and former Miami Heat security officer will spend three years in federal prison after admitting to stealing hundreds of game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia from the team to sell for his own profit.
Marcos Tomas Perez, 62, of Miami, was sentenced on Jan. 7 and is currently held in FDC Miami. He was ordered to pay $1.9 million in restitution and will be on supervised release for two years after serving his sentence, court records show.
Perez was a Miami Police officer for more than two decades before working for the Miami Heat’s security department in 2016 through 2021. He also worked for the NBA in in a similar security position where he had access to an equipment room in the Heat arena.
The equipment room stored many game-worn jerseys that were meant to be housed in a future Miami Heat Museum, according to a factual proffer, an agreement of facts between the defense and prosecution. In 2021, Perez accessed the room for authorized work purposes. He sent text messages to a friend: “I have hit the lotto let me send you photos” and “I found the game used storage Warehouse in the arena.”
After that day and continuing for more than three years, Perez started regularly accessing the room while working shifts, telling co-workers he needed to use the bathroom or other reasons to leave his position, the factual proffer said. Instead, he would enter the area where the key to the storage room was held, unlock the door and prop it open, then return the key. Perez at the end of his shift or an event at the arena would go back to the room and take several items of memorabilia each time.
Perez at first used a third-party liaison to set up deals with memorabilia collectors and split profits. He later set up his own corporate entity, South Florida Signature Authenticators Incorporated, to sell more than 400 stolen pieces, according to the court document.
Within three-and-a-half years, Perez sold more than 100 of the stolen items across state lines to make a total of $1.9 million, the factual proffer said. Some of the items were sold well below their actual value. In one instance, he sold a Miami Heat NBA finals jersey worn by Lebron James for $100,000, which resold at Sotheby’s auction for $3.7 million.
Authorities searched Perez’s home in April 2025 and found nearly 300 more game-worn jerseys and other pieces of memorabilia, including several NBA players’ sneakers. The Miami Heat identified them as having been stolen from their facility, the factual proffer said.
Perez pleaded guilty in August 2025 to transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce.