Arnold Schwarzenegger Detained at Munich Airport for Traveling With 'Unregistered' Luxury Watch
Arnold Schwarzenegger was detained for three hours due to traveling with an "unregistered" luxury watch he owns, according to reports.
Jan. 17 2024, Updated 2:31 p.m. ET
Arnold Schwarzenegger was detained at a Munich airport today for traveling with an "unregistered" luxury watch he owns, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Sources with knowledge of the incident said he was stopped by German customs officers and held for three hours after his flight from Los Angeles, California, but seemed to handle the ordeal with stride despite the long stretch of time.
"If the goods remain in the EU, you have to pay tax and duty on them," said the customs spokesman.
It's believed the action star may auction the watch — said to be a Swiss brand Audemars Piguet worth more than $21,000 — tomorrow in Austria for the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative, leading customs to initiate "criminal tax proceedings."
"If the goods remain in the EU, you have to pay tax and duty on them," said the customs spokesman, according to German newspaper BILD, which was first to report on his detention. "That applies to everyone."
The spox said that includes Schwarzenegger, who has dual Austrian and US citizenship. In the BILD report was a photo of the Terminator actor, looking cool and collected while posing with the item in hand which they explained is required to be registered due to it being an import.
It's believed the action star may auction the watch — said to be a Swiss brand Audemars Piguet worth more than $21,000 — tomorrow in Austria for the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative.
The former governor of California "cooperated at every step even though it was an incompetent shakedown," another insider told Page Six, claiming he was "never asked to fill out a declaration form and he answered every question from customs officers honestly."
Schwarzenegger agreed to prepay potential taxes on the watch but faced another hassle when officers allegedly struggled to use a credit card machine for up to an hour.
He was then brought to a bank where he hoped to do an ATM withdrawal, but the amount apparently exceeded the funds he could take out and the bank was already closed.
The former governor of California "cooperated at every step even though it was an incompetent shakedown," another insider said.
"When he returned, a new officer brought a new credit card machine that worked," the insider said. He has since been released after the incident over his luxury watch.
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A rep for Schwarzenegger has not yet addressed the incident.
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"The Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative will properly report it, as all of Arnold's nonprofits do," the insider added. "We hope Germany spends as much energy turning around their economy as they do asking for tax payments for people's property they bring into the country, and we hope next time they don't make him pay taxes on his suits."
RadarOnline.com has reached out to a rep for Schwarzenegger for comment.
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