A woman accused of breaking into Robert De Niro's Manhattan home was caught stealing wrapped Christmas presents, police say

• A woman is accused of breaking into Robert De Niro's Manhattan townhouse, police said.
• Police said the woman tried to steal wrapped Christmas presents.

A woman has been accused of breaking into Robert De Niro's Manhattan townhouse while the famed actor was home, and the New York Police Department said she was caught red-handed trying to steal wrapped Christmas presents.

The department said that officers spotted a woman — who police said was known to authorities in connection to previous burglaries — entering the two-time Oscar-winner's home at East 65th Street near Lexington Avenue through a basement door at around 2:45 a.m. on Monday.

Police said the basement door had signs of forced entry and had been pried open with a tool during the break-in.

Police said the NYPD officers then entered the Upper East Side townhouse and found the suspect in the living room of the home taking presents. ABC News reported that the presents were taken from underneath a Christmas tree, but police did not confirm this to Insider.

"She was removing property and wrapped gifts that she was placing into a bag," an NYPD spokesman told Insider on Tuesday.

Police saw the woman with a pair of headphones that did not belong to her, according to the criminal complaint against her.

At the time, 79-year-old De Niro was upstairs, and he came down when he heard the commotion, a department spokesman said.

Police said that the suspect, identified as a 30-year-old woman, was taken into custody "without incident." She was arrested on a charge of burglary, police said. It was not immediately clear whether she had obtained an attorney.

The suspect was arraigned on a charge of second-degree burglary on Tuesday morning and a judge set her bail at $40,000 cash or $80,000 bond, according to a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

An NYPD spokesman told Insider that the suspect was recently arrested on December 8 in connection to a string of six previous New York City burglaries. In that case, she posted bail and was released, the spokesman said.

Stan Rosenfield, a representative for De Niro, told Insider on Tuesday that he had no comment about the incident, but said it occurred at a temporary rental home for "The Irishman" and "Goodfellas" actor.