Russell Brand Arrested in New Orleans

By Liz Raftery

03/16/2012 at 07:55 AM EDT

Not a pretty picture.

Russell Brand was taken into police custody Thursday in New Orleans after he allegedly grabbed a photographer's iPhone and threw it out a window, according to reports.

The comedian, 36, was released after posting $5,000 bail, New Orleans police spokesman Garry Flot told Reuters.

The alleged phone-tossing incident occurred Monday, when a paparazzi photographer filed a police report stating that Brand, whose divorce from Katy Perry was finalized last month, had grabbed his iPhone while the photographer was sitting in a car and hurled it out a window, breaking the window in the process.

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It's unclear whether Brand was arrested or turned himself in Thursday, Reuters reports.

Still, he appears not to have lost his sense of humor in the incident. As he Tweeted Wednesday, before being booked: "Since Steve Jobs died I cannot bear to see anyone use an iPhone irreverently, what I did was a tribute to his memory."