SYDNEY - An exhausted Australian man fell asleep while apparently trying to pick the lock of a shopping centre after a "long night", police said Monday.

The 35-year-old man was found snoozing outside a Perth shopping complex early Sunday with a lock-breaking wire still in his hand, police spokesman Samuel Dinnison said.

"It appears he fell asleep on the ground with the wire still in his hands and also in the door," he told AFP.

Keys found on the man opened a car parked nearby which was filled with a large quantity of prescription drugs linked to the burglary of a pharmacy earlier in the morning.

"He obviously had a long night, whatever he was doing, and that got the better of him," Dinnison said.

Police said the man has been charged with driving without a licence, burglary and attempted burglary.