This fire was coming from inside the house.
Marcos Thomas Perez, a former security officer for the Heat, was sentenced to three years in federal prison and is ordered to pay $1.9 million in restitution after stealing hundreds of pieces of memorabilia from the franchise while working there.
According to court records, Perez, 62, was sentenced earlier this month after pleading guilty last August to transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce, the Associated Press reported Friday.
Perez was previously a 25-year veteran of the Miami Police Department before working for the Heat from 2016-21 and later as an NBA security employee from 2022-25.
“This defendant was a former police officer who betrayed the public trust and exploited his access to our beloved hometown team for personal gain,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said in a statement, per AP. “The Miami Heat represent excellence built through hard work and discipline in South Florida — and this conduct was the opposite.”
The FBI and federal prosecutors say that Perez stole over 400 jerseys from a secured equipment room and sold off items through numerous online marketplaces.
He was part of a select group of employees who had access to the secured room — that featured memorabilia that the Heat planned to use in a future team museum — because of his job working on the game-day security detail at the Kaseya Center.
Authorities say the items Perez stole amounted to roughly $1.9 million in value. One of the pieces was a LeBron James jersey that he wore in the NBA Finals, which he sold for about $100,000. That same jersey was later sold for $3.7 million at a Sotheby’s auction.
According to NBC 6 South Florida, any items that were in Perez’s possession were confiscated by the FBI, and people who had obtained items that the ex-cop stole were being asked to return them.
The case initially caught public attention after NBA insider and former team executive Amin Elhassan revealed the details of the case during an appearance on an episode of “The Dan Le Batard Show” last summer.
Elhassan said that the case was “one of the largest, if not the largest, memorabilia heists in the history of this country in any sport.”
“This was sold for many, many millions of dollars,” Elhassan said then. “Authenticated NBA Finals collectibles belonging to the Heat were stolen and sold over at least an 18-month span — both on the open market and the black market.”
