BANGKOK (AFP) - Police in Thailand said Wednesday that they had apprehended a thief with more than a thousand pairs of women's underwear in the trunk of his car.

Police also found more than ten thousand pairs at the house of the 48-year-old Thai suspect, who was arrested late Tuesday with an accomplice after breaking into a building in Bangkok's Chinatown.

They said the man admitted to stealing and collecting women's underwear since the age of 18.

"He smelled them all the time even while driving," said police Major General Saroj Promcharoen.

The suspect will be charged with stealing property, though not the underwear for now because there is no plaintiff, police said.