Senior police officials say she was stealing presents from around his Christmas tree. Pei-Sze Cheng reports.
The plot thickens.
A recidivist burglar with more than two dozen prior arrests has been arrested for allegedly breaking into Robert De Niro's Upper East Side townhouse and using his iPad -- not stealing Christmas presents around his tree, as it was initially reported -- while the Oscar-winning actor and 10-year-old daughter slept upstairs, senior police officials say.
According to them, officers with the 19th Precinct's public safety team, launched earlier this month at the direction of top NYPD brass following a rash of burglaries in the neighborhood, spotted the woman, 30-year-old Shanice Aviles, trying door handles of commercial establishments in the area, presumably to see if any were open. They followed her.
Aviles turned the corner onto East 65th Street, where De Niro's townhouse sits, and officers lost her for a minute, the senior officials said. They, too, turned a corner and noticed a townhouse door open.
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They didn't know it was De Niro's.
A quick tactical team was assembled and went into the residence, where they found Aviles on the second floor, using what investigators would learn was De Niro's iPad. Then they recognized her as one of the precinct's wanted burglars. They took her into custody, then went upstairs, possibly to a third floor, where they noticed all the De Niro photos.
They had to wake him up. His 10-year-old daughter was sleeping in another room at the time, senior police officials said. Neither she nor De Niro were hurt. He is expected to press charges against Aviles, they said.
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Locksmiths were spotted at the townhouse later Monday.
Aviles is charged with burglary in the case. She has been cuffed nine times since Nov. 21 in the same precinct, the senior police officials said. She has been released multiple times and has two bench warrants out for her arrest.
Aviles has 26 prior arrests, not including Monday's cuffing, primarily for burglaries. Aviles had also been arrested in Queens, allegedly for burglary, on Black Friday.
Attorney information for her wasn't immediately available.
