The fugitive rapper, who announced at a surprise appearance with the Wu-Tang Clan in New York City last week that he would exist “like a bird” and subsist on “birdseeds or whatever,” was arrested at a McDonald’s parking lot in south Philadelphia on November 27 by a sharp-eyed cop he may have mistaken for an autograph-seeker.

Officer Rebecca Anderson was on routine patrol at about 3:30 p.m. when she spotted the rapper in a blue 1991 Mitsubishi Galant with New Jersey tags, Sgt. Mel Williams told the Philadelphia Daily News.

“She knew him from listening to his music and knew he was wanted by police,” he said. “She stopped him and found out it was him.”

Witnesses say a crowd of fans had formed around the rapper once he was stopped, and he may have approached Anderson believing she wanted his autograph. When officers reportedly drew their guns, ODB allegedly jumped back in his car and tried to flee by heading for an exit through a drive-thru lane.

Police blocked the exit and arrested their man at 4:17 p.m., according to police reports.

He was taken to a Philadelphia jail cell and is awaiting extradition to either New York City or Los Angeles, where he is the subject of arrest warrants, though it appears the Big Apple may get first crack at him in court.

“New York [cops] will be down to get him,” Williams told the Daily News.

The arrest ended a month on the lam for the erratic rapper. It’s the latest twist to an increasingly bizarre saga that has included nine arrests in 13 months and culminated in his flight from a Pasadena, Calif., rehab center and re-emergence onstage at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan with his Wu-Tang Clan mates.

Among the charges ODB has faced include crack cocaine and marijuana possession, making terroristic threats, stealing a $50 pair of athletic shoes and being a felon in possession of body armor.

At the time of his escape from the Impact House clinic in California, he was en route to an L.A. County courthouse for a progress hearing. He had previously been excused from NYC court hearings on charges of possessing 20 bags of crack cocaine and one of marijuana because his attorneys informed the court he was in rehab.

The day before he was excused from hearings in New York, a bench warrant was issued in Los Angeles for his arrest for illegally wearing a bulletproof vest in February.

He was already serving time in California’s Chino State Prison for violating probation in a separate case when he was transferred in June to Impact House to undergo treatment in the locked-down facility.

When he broke free during the transfer to the court for his hearing on October 17, a no-bail warrant was issued for his arrest.

According to the Daily News, counselors had recommended dropping ODB from the rehab program. The judge then likely would have then sent him back to prison for three years to complete his sentence.