A returning criminal was caught robbing Robert De Niro’s Manhattan home early Monday — law enforcement sources told The Post — messing with the actor’s iPad and taking Christmas gifts around the tree.
Sources said the 30-year-old woman, identified as Shanice Aviles, crept down a flight of stairs leading to the 79-year-old De Niro’s Upper East Side home around 2:30 a.m.
Eyes on officers with the NYPD’s 19th Public Security Team spotted Aviles — a “known burglar” with more than 25 arrests on her rap sheet — trying to open doors to commercial premises before she entered the home, according to sources.
Sources said cops took her to De Niro’s building and found her on the second floor — fumbling through the star’s iPad.
“She was stealing Christmas presents,” a police official added.
According to sources, there were pictures of De Niro all over the house — but the actor himself was nowhere in sight. The sources said he was upstairs and his daughter was in a bedroom. The sources said that none of the residents knew what was going on.
Sources said officers arrested Aviles inside the house, and charges are still pending.
Sources said Aviles had at least 26 previous arrests, most of them for burglary.
The finger thief started his crimes during the epidemic.
This year alone, she has been busted 16 times for burglary and petty theft, according to sources.
“Get back in the saddle with that offense,” a police source said.
Sources said she was arrested for seven robberies in the 19th Precinct — which covers the Upper East Side — between November 25 and December 8.
She was arrested in six robberies on Dec. 8, the police official said.
“This is just another example of the chance-and-release justice system we deal with,” the police official said.
One source described Aviles as “one of the… [19th Precinct’s] Top Five Thieves.
De Niro’s representatives did not immediately return calls for comment.
