As a handful of photographers stood outside the Ole Henriksen salon in West Hollywood yesterday waiting for Paula Abdul to exit, an eyewitness tells E! News that one of them dropped his phone by Abdul's parked Range Rover and had to crawl underneath the SUV to retrieve it.

Shortly after, three deputies from the West Hollywood branch of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department  arrived on the scene. Illegal oil change? Nope. Our source says the boys in blue asked the paps if one of them had put a tracking device under Abdul's car, explaining that the former American Idol judge was concerned for her safety. While the eyewitness says no one was cited in the incident, Abdul was a bit shaken up...

"Everything was cool, but the people in the salon made a big deal," says the source. "Paula did not want to ride in her own car."

Sure enough, a little while later, a man and a woman—possibly Abdul's assistants—showed up at the salon, and the man drove off in Abdul's SUV. The woman, in another vehicle, pulled in front of the salon and Abdul quickly walked out, got in the backseat and ducked down.