A British man was arrested after trying to illegally cross the Russian border to meet his online fiancée, Polish authorities have said.
Poland’s Border Guard said it had arrested a lovestruck “stubborn Englishman” on February 23 after he was caught trying to cross into Russia from Grzechotki.
The officials said the unnamed man, 37, planned to embark on a risky 700-mile journey into the country via Kaliningrad Oblast so he could see his fiancée in St Petersburg.
During an initial attempt, the man tried to gain entry to Russia via border guards, whom he had told he was meeting a woman he met online.
He was turned away but later attempted to skirt the border guard during a second bid to gain entry that resulted in his arrest.
The Polish Border Guard detailed their first interactions with the Englishman in an official statement released earlier this week.
Officials said: “At the road border crossing in Grzechotki on February 23 at 2am, a British citizen arrived to cross the border, heading out of Poland.
“He claimed he wanted to travel to St Petersburg to visit his fiancée, whom he had met online.”
The statement added that the man was arrested after dumping his BMW at the border and attempting to gain entry by bypassing the guard control post at 5.30am.
He was subsequently arrested and told guards he had decided to cross into Russia via Lithuania.
“The detained Englishman explained to the Border Guard officers that his navigation had misdirected him.
“He also admitted that he was so keen to go to the girl he had met over the internet that he decided instead to head to Lithuania and cross to Russia from there.”
The guards captured the man on camera, with one infrared image showing him walking near the border and another showing his BMW parked in the middle of a muddy road.
Officers fined the Brit PLN500 (£100) for trespassing on the border road at Grzechotki, and he received an additional PLN100 (£20) for failing to adhere to traffic signage.
Poland has recently bulked its border security with a new wall protecting the border with Belarus after the country repeatedly ushered migrants to its neighbour.
