Los Angeles: Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn’t believe that he ended up being detained at Munich airport upon his arrival in Germany. He had been held for three hours after failing to declare his luxury watch, and he was left baffled by the debacle.
“This is the problem that Germany is suffering from,” the 76-year-old told German newspaper Bild.
“You can no longer see the forest for the trees.”
The actor, who travelled from the US, was detained January 17, after trying to take an “unregistered” watch from Swiss luxury brand Audemars Piguet through customs.
According to reports, he would auction the timepiece during a fundraising dinner at his World Climate Summit in Kitzbuhel, Austria, Thursday, reports aceshowbiz.com.
Of the ordeal, Thomas Meister, a Munich Customs press officer, told CNN: “He did not declare a product. A product that was imported from non-EU countries in order to remain in the EU.” Thomas added: “And this process applies to everyone.”
While he was unpleased by the detention, Arnold reportedly managed to be cooperative. “He cooperated at every step even though it was an incompetent shakedown, a total comedy of errors that would make a very funny cop movie,” a source said.
The source went on to note that Arnold agreed to pre-pay potential taxes on the item, but the officers reportedly failed to use a credit card machine for an hour. Thus, they brought the actor to a bank and asked him to withdraw cash from an ATM.
Unfortunately, the ATM they brought Arnold to had a limit too low and the bank was closed. When he came back, a new officer brought a new credit card machine that worked.
