Three illegal migrants from Georgia hitched a ride with a Lithuanian border guard who was on his way to work - where the Georgians were subsequently detained.
The three Georgian men boarded the border guard's private vehicle when he was driving from Druskininkai, southern Lithuania, to the border guard unit in Varėna on Tuesday. The border guard was not wearing his uniform.
The Georgians asked him to take them to Vilnius, but the border guard had suspicions about their appearance and other circumstances, the State Border Guard Service said.
Lithuanian border guards have lately observed a rise in the number of Georgian nationals attempting to illegally enter Lithuania from Belarus.
The border guard drove the suspicious passengers to the Varėna border station. They had no documents but presented themselves as Georgian citizens aged 20, 37, and 40. The men said they were in search of a better life.
On Tuesday evening, the three men were taken to the Foreigners Registration Center in Pabradė.
Lithuanian border guards have detained 235 illegal migrants from Georgia in Lithuania this year.