EW YORK, N.Y. –

Tatum O’Neal told a newspaper columnist she is grateful to the New York City police officers who busted her for cocaine and saved her from herself.

“I’m still sober!” the 44-year-old actress told New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser in a phone call shortly after being released from custody Monday.

“Just when I was about to change that and wreck my life, the cops came and saved me! I was saved by the bell, by the guys in the Seventh Precinct” , says accesshollywood.com