A US burglar has been dubbed the 'bare-bottom bandit' after his trousers fell down, exposing his buttocks to CCTV cameras.

Christopher Willever drunkenly broke into an empty Tobacco Hut store in Nebraska after drinking a bottle of rum and deciding he was fed up of being poor.

But the 22-year-old was so drunk he didn't realise as he crawled around the floor of the store that his trousers were around his knees, exposing his rear-end to the security cameras.

Judge Thomas Otepka - who sentenced Willever to five years in jail - said: "You were an ass in every true sense of the word in this crime."

His defence attorney, Kelly Steenbock, attempted to plead for a lenient sentence, saying: "He was pretty humiliated and embarrassed. He showed his bottom to whoever turned on the TV."