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The first sign the local man received of his predicament was when a person living nearby loudly knocked on his front door and informed him his beloved Mini had fallen into a hole.

"I went out anticipating a minor dip under a tire or something like that. But when I went out to take a look, I realized, oh, that really is a significant cavity," he explained.

His automobile had dropped into a 10-foot wide gap, possibly created by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has spent 25 days stuck in a administrative "nightmare" trying to determine how to extricate his Mini.

The Main Issue: Unregistered Land

The hitch is that the land has no registered owner. The authorities has said it can't remove the barriers blocking off the sinkhole until land ownership had been established. "It's a bit of a nightmare," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed designer. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has resided in the area in Redruth for about a decade and actually has a designated spot beside his house, but it is too narrow to be useful so he began parking outside a local bakery. He had checked with both the shop and the local authority that he would avoid receiving a ticket.

"I had finally reached a point like I was getting somewhere, I had a reliable small vehicle that was economical and simple to keep on the road. It signified I could at last focus on trying to put money aside to take my daughter on her aspirational journey to Japan one day. She's constantly dreamed to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then arrived that loud rapping on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was quite panicked. The police turned up and closed the area off. We all had to remain in the houses because we couldn't leave without going past the collapse. The highways people came out, erected the fence up, and then they came out and placed a second fence up around it as well."

It is believed the hole may be an unfortunate remnant of Pednandrea Mine, a disused copper and tin mine.

McKenzie believed he would be without his vehicle for a short period. But days have now become weeks.

A Potential Solution

An conclusion may be approaching. The authorities has stated it will cooperate with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the fences to allow the Mini to be recovered. He commented: "They have agreed to work with my insurer's retrieval crew and try to schedule a day and an acceptable way of extracting it that doesn't put anybody at risk."

The car has been badly damaged and is likely to be declared a total loss. "On the bright side I can say my Mini met its end in a memorable way – not everyone can say their vehicle was swallowed by the Earth itself," McKenzie remarked.

Council Response

A representative from the authorities expressed it sympathised with McKenzie. But it added: "The ground giving way did not occur on council land. We have made the area safe and informed the car owner that we will organize to temporarily remove the fence to enable him to retrieve the car.

"As the land is unregistered, our safety measures will stay up until property ownership has been established, and we will persist to observe the surrounding area to guarantee everyone's security."