Arnold Schwarzenegger was detained at Munich airport for a couple of hours for failing to declare a valuable watch that he wanted to sell for charity upon arrival at customs.
"He had not declared a product imported from a non-European country with the aim of having it remain in Europe. This process is blind to anyone," said Thomas Meister, a spokesman for German customs.
The former actor was then released, although criminal proceedings were opened against him, and he was able to continue his journey to Austria.
The watch, a prized Swiss-made Audemars Piguet, is expected to be auctioned in Kitzbuhel, a source close to the actor told CNN.
The sale is expected to bring proceeds to the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative.
The episode, which the source compared to "a laugh-out-loud detective story", was a true comedy of errors: Schwarzy had not been asked to fill out any customs forms and he "had answered the customs officers' questions in The actor, a former Republican governor of California, had then agreed to pay taxes upfront on the potential sale of the watch, but the credit card machine in Customs' possession was not working and the transaction could not be made. go through. With the banks still closed the former Terminator had therefore had to wait for a branch to open to try to withdraw the sum in cash, but that too had been a failure. In the end a new one was found working device that accepted the card and Schwarzy's adventure ended happily.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA