Advertiser Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links below. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was detained by German customs officers at Munich Airport (MUC) after a rare Audemars Piguet watch was found in his luggage. He planned to auction off the timepiece, but a random bag check seems to have caused some issues.
The Daily Mail is reporting that the former California governor flew from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and was on his way to a climate charity auction in Kitzbühel, Austria tomorrow. Schwarzenegger holds dual citizenship in the United States and Austria. Upon agents finding the watch, he has been detained for several hours. According to German officials, the watch should have been declared. Thomas Meister, a spokesman for the Munich Main Customs Office, said:
We have initiated criminal proceedings under tax law. The watch should have been registered because it is an import. If the goods remain in the EU, you have to declare them through customs. This applies to everyone, whether their name is Schwarzenegger or Müller, Meier, Huber.”
Schwarzenegger has an extensive collection of watches and it’s not known which he was planning to auction. He runs the Vienna-based charity, The Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative, which is raising funds at a party during the Hahnenkamm Race (which is part of the Alpine ski calendar).
No further details have been released around penalties or how long the Terminator star would be held up by customs.
Anthony’s Take: I’d guess that this was an oversight, although Julio Iglesias was also busted this week by customs in the Dominican Republic for smuggling in produce and meat (more here). We’ll have to wait to see how Arnie fares here.
(Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore via Wikipedia.)
(Image Credit: Metehan Gümüşdağ.)
User Generated Content Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
