Musician surrounded by armed NSW Police after local mistakes guitar for rifle in Sydney park

A musician practising guitar in a Sydney park has been surrounded by armed cops after a concerned local thought his bizarrely shaped musical instrument was a high-powered gun.

The terrified resident called Triple Zero about 11.20pm on Monday night after seeing what they thought was a man carrying a rifle fitted with a laser sight at Victoria Park in inner-city Camperdown.

The man was local musician Billy Rockbottom, the red light was coming from an amplifier jack and the rifle was ‘Suzie Q’ – his three-string cigar box guitar.

A NSW Police spokeswoman confirmed officers had been called to the park next to the University of Sydney after reports a man who could be armed. 

‘Police were called to that location about 11.20pm last night,’ she said. 

‘However, following a canvass of the area, no one was located with a firearm.’ 

Rockbottom had gone to the park about 10.30pm for a late-night twang to avoid disturbing his wife and two sons or neighbours at his nearby house.  

The 51-year-old was sitting on the roots of a fig tree fiddling with a new amplifier when he was suddenly surrounded by police with their handguns drawn.

‘I did notice what I thought was a police van up in the university grounds,’ he told Daily Mail Australia. ‘But I didn’t think anything of it at the time.

‘The next thing, from behind I suddenly notice there are torches being shone on me and a voice saying, “Are you right there mate?”

‘The voice became voices screaming at me not to move and to put down what I had in my hands.’

Rockbottom, a sometime busker who describes his solo musical project as swamp folk rock, believed there were about 30 police in the park.

‘I realised there were numerous weapons drawn on me,’ he said. ‘It was a very tense situation.’

Once the police realised Rockbottom was carrying a guitar rather than a firearm they explained why they had been called to the scene. 

‘Someone had seen a man sitting under a tree with what they believed was a gun with a laser sight on it,’ he said. 

Rockbottom, who also sings and plays bass with heavy rock band Fleetwood Meth, said he was glad the caller had been concerned enough to contact police and only had praise for the officers who responded. 

‘I found them very professional and polite,’ he said. ‘Until I tried to sing a song to them and they spun on their heels and took off.’

Rockbottom said he was already working on a song about his encounter on Monday night for his upcoming album Tunes to Pass Hard Time which he would call Real Deep, Real Quick.