Robert De Niro’s NYC townhouse reportedly burgled by intruder looking for Christmas presents

Actor is said to have been inside the home with his daughter at the time

Robert De Niro has reportedly been the victim of a home burglary.

At around 2:30 am Monday (19 December) morning, a woman was reportedly caught in the 79-year-old Goodfellas star’s New York City townhouse, taking presents from underneath the Christmas tree and fiddling with his iPad.

Law enforcement sources told The New York Post that the woman, identified as Shanice Aviles, 30, was a “known burglar”, with more than 25 arrests on her record.

Sources said New York Police Department’s 19th Precinct Public Safety officers had spotted Aviles attempting to gain entry into commercial buildings before successfully making her way down a stairwell leading her to De Niro’s Upper East Side home.

Aviles was apprehended inside the home, where she was found on the second floor.

“She was stealing Christmas presents,” a police official told the publication.

At the time, De Niro was upstairs while his daughter was in a separate bedroom. They are not believed to have come in contact with the Aviles, sources have said.

Robert De Niro (Getty Images)

The Independent has reached out to De Niro’s representative for comment.

Charges against Aviles are said to remain pending, but sources have claimed she has at least 26 prior arrests, most of them for theft.

Between 25 November and 8 December, sources said she had been picked up for seven burglaries across the Upper East Side.

In 2012, De Niro, a lifelong New Yorker, sold his West Village townhouse of 37 years for $9.5m (£7.6m). He later relocated his primary residence to upstate New York at the height of the pandemic.

At the time, his attorney Carolien Krauss said of De Niro: “He intends to reside in Gardiner for the foreseeable future.

“He is, after all, 76 and in the category of people for which Covid-19 is dangerous.”