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The initial sign Malcolm McKenzie received of his predicament was when a person living nearby loudly knocked on his door and informed him his beloved Mini had fallen into a opening.

"I went out anticipating a minor dip under a wheel or something similar. But when I went out to check it out, I realized, oh, that really is a significant cavity," he explained.

His automobile had dropped into a 3-metre wide gap, likely created by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has endured 25 days caught in a bureaucratic "nightmare" trying to figure out how to retrieve his Mini.

The Core Issue: Unclaimed Land

The complication is that the land has no registered owner. The local council has stated it can't remove the fences blocking off the sinkhole until land ownership had been established. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed creative. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has resided in the area in Redruth for about a decade and in fact has a designated spot next to his house, but it is not wide enough to be practical so he started leaving his car outside a nearby bakery. He had verified with both the shop and the council that he would avoid receiving a parking fine.

"I'd finally felt like I was getting somewhere, I had a dependable little car that was economical and easy to keep on the road. It signified I could finally focus on trying to put money aside to take my child on her aspirational journey to Japan someday. 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 arrived and closed the zone off. We all had to stay in the homes because we couldn't leave without passing by the hole. The road crew arrived, erected the barrier up, and then they came out and put a additional barrier up surrounding it as well."

It is thought the hole may be an unfortunate legacy of a historic local mine, a disused copper and tin mine.

McKenzie believed he would be without his car for a few days. But that short time have now turned into weeks.

A Possible Solution

An end may be approaching. The authorities has said it will work with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the fences to permit the car to be recovered. He commented: "They are willing to work with my insurance company's recovery team and try to arrange a day and an acceptable way of extracting it that ensures no anybody at danger."

The vehicle has been badly damaged and is probably to be written off. "At least I can say my Mini went out in a memorable way – not everyone can claim their vehicle was eaten by the Earth itself," McKenzie remarked.

Council Response

A representative from the local council said it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it said: "The ground giving way did not occur on public property. We have secured the location and informed the vehicle owner that we will arrange to lift the barrier to enable him to retrieve the vehicle.

"Since no one owns the land, our barriers will stay up until land ownership has been determined, and we will continue to monitor the vicinity to ensure public safety."