Imagine the scene. It's two in the morning and blaring music keeps you awake. You look out of your window and see a mass of ravers partying on your land. You summon the police and they arrive 20 minutes later.
What would you expect them to do? It's your land, the party-goers are there without your permission and you can already imagine how much clearing up awaits you when they depart. You might well expect the police to send the ravers on their way.
Wrong. Not if the case of David Benton is anything to go by. A farmer in Lincolnshire, we brought you his story last week. On New Year's Eve, his farm was invaded by dozens of ravers who broke down a gate so they could drive lorries onto his property.
They took over one of his buildings and installed a sound system for a 12-hour rave without his permission.
But when Mr Benton called police to intervene they told him that they couldn't do anything. They said there were less than 100 people at the party and so legally no offence was being committed.
"I said people have caused criminal damage to my property. I said I would like them removed from my property", Mr Benton told the programme. "The police just stood around and the girls had their arms around them."
Many of our listeners were shocked. The decision seemed to fly in the face of common sense.
But Mr Benton's experience turned out to be nothing compared to what happened to Graeme Stephen. He emailed us because he'd found himself in a similar position - calling the police to move ravers off his land.
Mr Stephen had had this problem before - and didn't think the police would take any action. In this case, however, they did. They arrested Mr Stephen.
"The question is what are the police there to do? Are they there to protect people in terms of property, or is property irrelevant - in which case mob rule applies", Mr Stephen told us.
The Today Programme received hundreds of emails on the subject, and our listeners were divided. Some were astonished at what the police had done - and even had their own examples.
Philip Goodall from Buckinghamshire had found police reluctant to evict hundreds of people at a party in his warehouse because there were "too many people".
But others defended the police. Sue Matthews of Lancashire, who insists she is "not a police officer - or anything to do with them", said the police did act correctly because "protection of property cannot take priority over public safety". Dave Bancroft of Milton Keynes agreed.
"Any heavy-handed approach would have caused trouble and not 'kept the peace'," he argued.
Do you believe the police acted correctly? Click here to have your say.
