A British man said police raided his 30th birthday barbecue because they mistook the event's description on his Facebook invite for an all-night rave.

Andrew Poole said he and about 17 friends had gathered in a field owned by a friend near Sowton, England, to celebrate his 30th birthday and they were about the light the barbecue when a police helicopter began circling the field and four police cars arrived with a riot van, the Daily Mail reported Friday.

Poole said eight officers in body armor jumped out of the vehicles and ordered the crowd to disperse or they would all be arrested.

"They told us to take down the sound system and said everybody's got to leave," Poole said of the police. "It was 4 p.m. and we hadn't even plugged the music in yet. ... It was on private land. We were nowhere near anyone. We weren't even playing any music. What effectively the police did was come in and stop 15 people eating burgers."

Poole said the Facebook invitation said the party was "all night" in case anyone wanted to sleep over.