Stole over 400 jerseys and profited $1.9 million! Former Miami Heat employee pleads guilty and could face up to 10 years in prison.

According to the Associated Press on August 20th (Beijing time), former Miami Heat employee Perez has pleaded guilty to charges of transporting and transferring stolen property across state lines after being accused of stealing team memorabilia worth millions of dollars. He initially denied the allegations. The 62-year-old Perez stole a large number of items from the Heat and sold them, making about $1.9 million by selling game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia at low prices to online middlemen as part of the scheme.

Perez is scheduled to be sentenced on October 31. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

From 2016 to 2021, Perez worked as a security guard for the Heat, and from 2022 to 2025, he served as an NBA security officer. In his role as game day security staff, he had access to a secure equipment room at the Kaseya Center, from which he took items that the Heat planned to display in a future team museum.

Perez sold more than 100 items and also stole over 400 game-worn jerseys. Among them was a jersey worn by LeBron James during the NBA Finals, which Perez sold for about $100,000. That same jersey was later auctioned for more than $3 million.

In April, authorities executed a search warrant and recovered around 300 items from Perez’s residence. The Heat confirmed these items had been stolen from their facility.

Defense attorney Robert Buschel stated, “He is very upset, but he is accepting responsibility for his actions, and we will help him through this difficult period in his life.”

Perez is a retired Miami Police Department veteran, having served for 25 years from November 1992 to April 2016.

Buschel said, “I hope the judge will take into account all the factors and experiences in his life. He was once a model police officer in the city of Miami and has been retired for nearly a decade. These were a series of unfortunate decisions, and he will be held accountable for them.”