A woman broke into Robert De Niro’s New York City townhouse Monday and tried to take all the presents around his Christmas tree while he was home, police said.
At around 2:45 a.m., officers saw the woman, who is known to police and has prior arrests, inside the basement of the Oscar-winning actor’s East 65th Street residence on the Upper East Side. The basement door showed signs of forced entry, New York City police said.
Two senior police officials with direct knowledge of the investigation told NBC New York that officers then saw the woman, identified as Shanice Aviles, 30, trying to take the presents around the Christmas tree.
That’s when the officials said De Niro came downstairs in a bathrobe, the news station reported. He wasn’t injured.
Aviles, meanwhile, was taken into custody at the scene, police said without disclosing the charges she faces in connection with the break-in.
Aviles denied going to the actor’s home in a video of her being escorted by police in handcuffs from a precinct.
“I didn’t go to Robert De Niro’s house,” she could be heard saying in the video.
It was unclear Monday if she had an attorney.
Aviles has 26 previous arrests, including 16 this year on burglary and petit larceny charges, NBC New York reported. Seven of the burglaries, all of them on the Upper East Side, occurred within a three-week span that started around Thanksgiving, the senior police officials said.
A spokesperson for the actor said, “We are not making any statement at this time about the robbery at the temporary rental home of Robert De Niro.”
De Niro, 79, won two Oscars, one for best supporting actor in “The Godfather Part II” and another for best actor in the “Raging Bull.”
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