Into the time-honored one New York Times Unfortunately, topics from Munich rarely make it. They have to put a ship on a railway bridge so that it’s worth telling a story to the colleagues over there. But it’s been more than five years, so the city can now be grateful to the customs officers at Munich Airport for a bit of fresh publicity. On Wednesday they looked through Arnold Schwarzenegger’s luggage and found an expensive watch that he should have declared. Arnie and his “pricey watch”, Detained at the airport for hours – that didn’t just flash the readers on the Upper East Side, it went around the whole world.
It’s hard to blame the officers for having the fun of rummaging through the laundry of a real A-plus celebrity; the usual drug or reptile smugglers are comparatively unglamorous and only make it into the local papers . It was also the day when a lot of flights were canceled due to freezing rain, so it may have been boring for the officials. You can easily imagine one of them nudging the other with his elbow and saying: “Go ahead, now let’s see what kind of underwear Terminator is wearing.”
Of course, strict customs secrecy also applies to the laundry of a Hollywood star and ex-politician. So you’ll never know whether he’s still wearing bodybuilder thongs or incontinence boxer shorts. Not even the investigative department has done that yet Picture-newspaper found out. But how they imposed criminal proceedings on him because of the watch will be enough for many a beer-filled regulars’ table anecdote in customs circles.
The watch has now been auctioned off for a good cause. In the aftermath, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger said that the involuntary stay in the Munich customs interrogation chamber would provide material for a funny police film. That doesn’t sound bad: Arnie, in his old age, turns the story into a comedy in Munich. The city would be in the international headlines again. Udo Wachtveitl and Miroslav Nemec would be ideal as sidekicks in the role of customs officers. After their announced end to Tatort, they should have more time for real films again.