Perhaps they were trying to keep a horde of vampires at bay.

Austrian police said Wednesday they had stopped five Romanians on the motorway with overflowing lorries transporting a whopping 9.5 tonnes... of fresh garlic.

The five men, aged 25 to 37, could not explain where the pungent bulbs came from or prove the load belonged to them and were charged with transporting stolen goods, the police said in a statement.

Officers caught a whiff that something was amiss late Tuesday when they saw three small lorries with foreign plates obviously filled far over capacity on the motorway near the Hungarian border.

"For that amount of garlic, the men would have needed nine small lorries, not three," a police officer told the Austria Press Agency.

The three drivers were charged with carrying an 80-percent excess load.

The garlic -- valued at 30,000 euros ($37,500) -- was meanwhile confiscated.

The smelly load was believed to come from Spain and was headed towards Hungary, police said.