GUY Sebastian was surrounded and arrested by a squadron of gun-wielding police officers in LA this week and hauled away in handcuffs for grand theft auto.

Only the car he had allegedly stolen happened to be his own.

The snazzy warbler, who divides his time between Sydney and the City of Angels as he tries to get a foothold on the US market, had reported his American wheels stolen to the LAPD after it went missing two weeks ago.

Unbeknown to Sebastian, the car had been towed. Returning to Australia from his second home to sing on Today live from Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, he was overheard telling the ever-sympathetic Kerri-Anne Kennerley about his dramatic arrest. Our backstage eavesdropper told us: "The car apparently turned up at a random impound so [Sebastian] went to pick it up himself. Not long after getting it back, 10 police jumped him, got him out of the car and arrested him at a carwash ... guns drawn, cuffs, everything!

"He was saying to them, 'Look, this is my car and I have recently reported it stolen'."

"[However] they still took him to the cop shop.

"But he was released, of course, after he proved that it was his car."

The Daily Telegraph's source said the X Factor judge was "laughing" as he re-told the story of the episode to KAK.

Sebastian's management yesterday confirmed the incident had occurred.

The bungle now takes to two the number of unpleasant run-ins Sebastian has had since moving Stateside with his wife Julie Egan.

In early 2009, a month after shifting to the US, he was held at knifepoint outside a Subway outlet following a late-night session in a recording studio.