Arnold Schwarzenegger was detained for multiple hours at the Munich airport on Wednesday for an undeclared luxury watch he was wearing, officials in Germany said.
The Terminator actor and former governor of California was able to leave after about three hours of questioning, but the Munich customs office said it is launching a tax evasion probe into the incident.
“Criminal tax proceedings have been initiated by us. This will then be processed by our criminal and fines office. It’s too early to say what the outcome will be. There are many factors that have to be taken into account. It will still take some time,” spokesperson Thomas Meister told German broadcaster RTL.
Schwarzenegger, 76, was travelling from Los Angeles through Munich on his way to his home country of Austria to participate in a charity auction when he was detained. The auction was to raise funds for The Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative.
The watch that caused Schwarzenegger so much trouble was custom-made for the actor by luxury Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet, and it was meant to be auctioned off at the event.
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According to a photo of the auction list obtained by German newspaper Bild, bids for the watch were supposed to start at 50,000 euros.
Schwarzenegger had not properly registered the extremely valuable timepiece when he technically imported it into Germany from the U.S. After a few hours of questioning, Schwarzenegger ended up paying several thousand euros in customs fees and was let go, a source told CBS and People.
The actor was never asked to fill out a declaration form, the source added, characterizing the incident as “an incompetent shakedown” and “a total comedy of errors that would make a very funny cop movie.”
“The officers failed to use a credit card machine for an hour until they gave up and brought Arnold to a bank and asked him to withdraw cash from an ATM to pay,” the source said. “The ATM they brought him to had a limit too low and the bank was closed. When he returned, a new officer brought a new credit card machine that worked.”
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Schwarzenegger was not allowed to take the watch with him when he was released by customs officers.
German guidelines for customs and duties state that travellers must declare “funds of 10,000 euros or more” and “valuable objects such as jewellery, expensive digital cameras, and so on” may be subject to special procedures.
In general, personal possessions are exempt from duties. As of this writing, Schwarzenegger has not publicly commented on the incident.
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