A former Heat employee has been accused of stealing more than 400 game-worn jerseys and other items and selling at least 100 of those items for profit, according to reports from The Athletic’s Brooks Peck and the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang and Charles Rabin.
According to a Department of Justice press release, Marcos Thomas Perez faced federal charges of transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce on Tuesday. Among the items Perez alleged stole was LeBron James’ jersey from Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, which he sold for approximately $100K. The jersey was later sold in 2023 at a Sotheby’s auction for $3.68MM.
The federal investigation was launched in early 2024 after game-worn jerseys from James, Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade — among many other items — went missing from the Heat’s arena, the Kaseya Center.
Perez worked the City of Miami Police Department in November 1992 until he retired in April 2016. He was employed by the Heat as a security officer from 2016-21, then worked for the NBA as a security employee from 2022 until this year.
“During his tenure, Perez worked on the game-day security detail at the Kaseya Center, where he was among a limited number of trusted individuals with access to a secured equipment room,” the DOJ’s press release reads. “This equipment room stored hundreds of game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia that the organization intended to display in a future Miami Heat museum.
“During his employment, Perez accessed the equipment room multiple times to steal over 400 game-worn jerseys and other items, which he then sold to various online marketplaces. Over a three-year period, Perez sold over 100 stolen items for approximately $2 million and shipped them across state lines, often for prices well below their market value.”
Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Perez’s home in April and seized almost 300 items that the Heat confirmed had been stolen from their arena.
Meadowlark Media’s Amin Elhassan first reported the news of the investigation on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” last week, according to the Herald. The Heat organization and the league have declined to comment during the ongoing investigation.
Heat culture…
More like Police Culture
Funny lol ……. but not nice …. ha
Look left, look right.., nobody sees me, ok, go ahead and steal it. Thus the need for cameras everywhere and I mean everywhere.
Didn’t used to be like this.
Look left, look right, look up !! Yup, someone sees me.
Gary…what are you talking about? Theft predates civilization. Didn’t used to be like what? Dude stole used laundry and his crime was victimless. Meanwhile United steals people’s money and health and lives and you want to scream about a sticky fingered doughnut scarfer while advocating for state spying of private locations?! This is America…
When wasn’t it like this, BCE 2200? You really don’t know anything about history. Sad.
Bro people have been swiping s**t forever we just have better surveillance now than ever so we see it constantly
Wow, the pessimism runs rampant in these parts. I’m older so I remember not locking my door at night, leaving my tools in the driveway when I went inside for lunch, those kinds of things.
Now people steal my gasoline from my car overnight, swipe my drills and wrenches and take anything that’s not bolted down in my carport.
Just giving you my perspective. Can’t say anything about thousands of years ago, but I guess you guys were there. Just my two cents here.
Gary just go read history maybe? Most of it is littered with mundane crap like old men yelling about their chariot ports being robbed of their chisels. One of the most famous pieces of history is a dude complaining about a copper deal. Sorry about your gas, that sucks. But so does your take here.
Ok dejota, thanks for letting me know.
How stupid can one be. Sells a jersey and doesn’t expect it to be flipped at some point and the team not hearing about the sale…classic.
Yeah not real bright.
Greedy narcissists…
Greed and thieves are personal qualities. It’s a shame this guy was a police officer. So imagine all the BS he pulled all those years. 400 pieces …. like he wanted to get caught. Not very smart.
“LeBron James jersey from Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, which Perez allegedly sold for $100,000, and later fetched $3.7 million at a Sotheby’s auction.”