BERLIN (Reuters) - German police uncovered over 1,000 pairs of underpants and more than 100 pairs of swimming trunks after catching a thief nabbing another three pairs for his collection.

The 46-year-old man was caught Sunday 19 July pinching three pairs of pants from a sports hall in the western town of Gelnhausen. Police then came across the enormous collection of underwear while searching his flat.

"They were all evidently in use, but had been washed and neatly stacked away," a police spokesman said Monday 20 July.

Police are now investigating where all the underwear came from. The suspect claims to have acquired then from car-boot sales and over the Internet.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley, editing by Paul Casciato)