Police in the US are on the lookout for a burglar with no trousers - who apparently broke in to a couple's house to do his laundry.

Officers in Wichita, Kansas, say a woman came home to find her laundry room in a mess so went upstairs to call her husband.

While she was on the phone, a man wearing just his boxer shorts came upstairs, grabbed her handbag and fled, reports the Wichita Eagle.

The woman chased him down the street and was able to get her bag back, but the half-naked thief ran off.

She returned to the house to found his jeans and belt still in her washing machine.

Police say he entered the property through a window and it appears that he simply needed to wash his clothes.