Former Miami Heat worker allegedly stole LeBron James jersey worth millions

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A former Miami Heat employee was charged with stealing hundreds of pieces of memorabilia and selling it online, including a jersey worn by LeBron James in the National Basketball Association’s championship series that later sold for nearly $4 million at auction.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday said Marcos Thomas Perez, who worked as a security guard for the Heat and the NBA from 2016 to 2025, took more than 400 game jerseys and other items from a secured equipment room that held memorabilia that the organization planned to put in a future museum devoted to the team.

Prosecutors said Perez sold more than 100 items to online brokers for about $2 million, often for prices that were well below their market value. Those items included the used LeBron James jersey, which Perez sold for $100,000 and later sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $3.7 million.

Law enforcement searched his home on April 3 and seized almost 300 additional jerseys and other items that had been stolen.

Perez, 62, a retired veteran of the Miami Police Department, made an initial appearance in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, prosecutors said. He was charged with transportation of stolen goods and faces as much as 10 years in prison if convicted.

An attorney for Perez couldn’t be immediately identified and a representative for the Heat didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

In March, a former employee of the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, which hosts the annual Masters tournament, was sentenced to one year in prison after admitting to stealing Masters golf tournament merchandise and selling it for millions of dollars to online brokers over about 13 years.

James won two titles with the Heat, in 2012 and 2013, during his four seasons with the club.

The case is US v Perez, 25-cr-20346, US District Court, Southern District of Florida.