Arnold Schwarzenegger Detained at Airport Over Expensive Watch: ‘An Incompetent Shakedown’

Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Sipa USA via AP Images

Hollywood actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was detained at an airport in Munich, Germany on Wednesday after he reportedly failed to declare an expensive watch.

According to reports, the 76-year-old Terminator star was detained for around three hours over the $28,000 watch, which he was transporting for a climate charity auction.

Schwarzenegger – who was born in Austria before becoming an American citizen in 1983 – was reportedly forced to pay $38,000 to customs officials, who demanded half in cash. Officials reportedly escorted Schwarzenegger to an ATM, where he was made to withdraw the money.

A customs office spokesperson told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, “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, meanwhile, told German tabloid Bild that the incident represented a “problem that Germany is suffering from,” and that the country “can no longer see the forest for the trees.”

An unnamed source told Fox News that Schwarzenegger “was never asked to fill out a declaration form, and he answered every question from customs officers honestly.”

They said, “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.”

The source concluded, “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.”