Ex-Heat security guard pleads guilty to selling millions in stolen memorabilia, including LeBron James Finals jersey
Marcos Thomas Perez, 62, is a retired 25-year veteran of the Miami police department and was employed by the Heat from 2016 to 2021. He also worked in security for the NBA from 2022 until this year.
Per NBC 6 South Florida, his sentencing date has been set for Oct. 31,, when he will face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years of probation and a fine of up to $250,000. His lawyer reportedly hopes his year in law enforcement will encourage leniency:
"He's depressed, naturally, but he accepts responsibility for his behavior and we're gonna work through this issue in his life," defense attorney Robert Buschel said after the hearing.
"I hope that the judge will consider all factors in his life and his history as a good person, he was an exemplary police officer in the City of Miami, he's been retired for close to 10 years," Buschel said. "This was an unfortunate set of decisions that he made and he's going to accept responsibility for that."
It was during his time working gameday security at the Kaseya Center that Perez was alleged to have stolen hundreds of game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia from a secured equipment room. The items were kept to be future exhibits at a Heat museum.
By the DOJ's count, Perez stole more than 400 jerseys and sold more than 100 of them online, making approximately $1.9 million over a three-and-a-half year period.
The most notable garment: a LeBron James jersey worn in the NBA Finals, sold for roughly $100,000 and later auction off at Sotheby's for $3.7 million. That jersey would be the one James wore during the Heat's win in Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, in which the superstar earned his second title and Finals MVP award. At the time, it was the third-highest price ever received for a game-worn jersey, behind a Michael Jordan jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals ($10.91 million) and Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" jersey ($9.28 million).
Law enforcement reportedly executed a search warrant at Perez's home in April and recovered nearly 300 pieces of memorabilia, all of which the the Heat confirmed to have come from their facility.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump to sign executive order to punish those who burn American flags
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Thursday that would direct the Justice Department to try to bring charges against people who burn the American flag, a White House official told CNN. The order is not expected to outright criminalize the act of burning the American flag, the official said, but rather directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to review cases where the flag has been set on fire and determine whether charges can be brought under existing laws. A 1989 Supreme Court ruling determined that burning the American flag in political protest is protected under the First Amendment. NewsNation first reported Trump's plans for the executive order. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Associated Press
13 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Missing woman's body found in California forest and detectives believe her husband has fled to Peru
LANCASTER, Calif. (AP) — The body of a missing woman was found in a Southern California forest days after her husband was recorded on surveillance video dragging something heavy out of their apartment complex north of Los Angeles, authorities said this week. Sheylla Cabrera, 33, of Lancaster, was reported missing on Aug. 12, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The next day, homicide detectives located the footage of her husband, Jossimar Cabrera, 36, hauling an object wrapped 'in a large piece of material' from the residence where the couple lived with their three young sons, the statement said. On Aug. 16, searchers discovered Sheylla Cabrera's body wrapped in similar material at the bottom of an embankment in Angeles National Forest south of Lancaster, the department said. The coroner's office will determine the cause of death. Officials said Cabrera's husband fled to Peru with the couple's sons. Peru's foreign ministry said Saturday on social media that it had repatriated the children back to Los Angeles via Mexico City to be reunited with their mother's family. Jossimar Cabrera is believed to still be in Peru, LA County sheriff's officials said. The Los Angeles Times said Tuesday that Peruvian media reported that officials questioned Cabrera at the airport in Lima and took the children into protective custody, but didn't detain him. Sheylla Cabrera's mother, Helga Rocillo, told the Peruvian news outlet Latina Noticias that her daughter had intended on filing a criminal report against her husband due to alleged psychological and physical abuse, according to the Times. Sheriff's detectives are in the process of presenting the case to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office for possible murder charges. The DA's office said it hadn't yet received the case as of Thursday morning.
New York Times
14 minutes ago
- New York Times
As Adams Tries to Run on His Record, Scandals Keep Swirling Around Him
As he mounts a long-shot campaign for a second term, Mayor Eric Adams of New York City likes to say that once the true story of his administration's successes is told, he will prevail. But it took 14 hours this week to underscore just how dangerously his desired narrative about falling crime and housing production has spun out of his control — precisely when he needs voters to give him a second chance. It began Wednesday evening when Mr. Adams was forced to distance himself from Winnie Greco, a campaign volunteer and former adviser, after she gave a journalist a wad of cash tucked in a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips. Then, on Thursday morning, the Manhattan district attorney unveiled a raft of new bribery charges targeting Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Mr. Adams's former chief adviser and a confidante so close Mr. Adams has called her his sister. Mr. Adams, who is running for re-election on a law-and-order platform, was not himself accused of wrongdoing in either matter. But the revelations dealt another blow to his already tenuous re-election prospects, and are all but certain to increase pressure on him from donors and his rivals to suspend his campaign. 'It's like nothing I have ever seen before,' said Christine Quinn, the former speaker of the New York City Council. 'Prior to potato-chip-gate and today's indictments of Ingrid, I didn't think the mayor had any chance of getting re-elected,' she added. 'Now, if there's an ability to get a negative number of votes, that's where he'll end up.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
