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The first sign the local man received of his predicament was when a person living nearby loudly knocked on his door and informed him his cherished Mini had plunged into a opening.

"I stepped outside anticipating a minor dip under a tire or something similar. But when I went out to check it out, I understood, oh, that truly is a proper hole," he stated.

His automobile had dropped into a 3-metre wide gap, possibly caused by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has endured 25 days caught in a bureaucratic "difficult situation" trying to determine how to extricate his Mini.

The Core Problem: Unregistered Land

The complication is that the property has no registered owner. The local council has stated it can't remove the barriers cordoning off the sinkhole until property rights had been confirmed. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance designer. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has resided in the neighborhood in Redruth for about 10 years and actually has a parking space beside 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 bakery and the council that he would avoid receiving a ticket.

"I had finally reached a point 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 at last focus on trying to put money aside to take my child on her dream trip to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Aftermath

Then came that knock on the door on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The police turned up and secured the area off. We all had to stay in the homes because we couldn't leave without going past the hole. The highways people arrived, put the barrier up, and then they came out and put a additional barrier up surrounding it as well."

It is thought the opening may be an unfortunate legacy of a historic local mine, a abandoned mining site.

McKenzie thought he would be separated from his vehicle for a few days. But that short time have now turned into weeks.

A Potential Resolution

An end may be approaching. The council has said it will cooperate with McKenzie to – temporarily – lift the barriers to allow the car to be removed. He commented: "They are willing to work with my insurer's retrieval crew and try to schedule a day and an suitable way of extracting it that ensures no anybody at danger."

The vehicle has been significantly harmed and is likely to be declared a total loss. "At least I can say my Mini went out in a memorable way – not everyone can claim their car was eaten by the Earth itself," McKenzie noted.

Council Response

A representative from the authorities said it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it added: "This collapse did not occur on council land. We have secured the location and informed the car owner that we will organize to temporarily remove the barrier to enable him to recover the car.

"Since no one owns the land, our safety measures will remain in place until property ownership has been established, and we will continue to observe the surrounding area to ensure public safety."