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The initial indication the local man received of his situation was when a neighbor loudly knocked on his front door and told him his beloved Mini had fallen into a opening.

"I stepped outside expecting a small pothole under a tire or something like that. But when I walked out to check it out, I realized, oh, that really is a proper hole," he explained.

His automobile had dropped into a 10-foot wide opening, likely caused by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has endured 25 days caught in a administrative "difficult situation" trying to determine how to extricate his car.

The Core Problem: Unclaimed Property

The hitch is that the property isn't registered. The local council has stated it can't remove the barriers blocking off the sinkhole until property rights had been established. "It's a bit of a nightmare," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance designer. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has resided in the area in Redruth for about 10 years and in fact has a parking space beside his house, but it is too narrow to be practical so he began parking outside a nearby bakery. He had verified with both the bakery 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 fuel-efficient and simple to keep on the road. It signified I could finally focus on trying to save up to take my daughter on her dream trip to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Consequences

Then came that knock on the door on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was quite panicked. The police arrived and closed the zone off. We all had to stay in the houses because we can't get out without passing by the hole. The road crew came out, erected the barrier up, and then they came out and put a second fence up around it as well."

It is thought the opening may be an unlucky legacy of Pednandrea Mine, a abandoned copper and tin mine.

McKenzie believed he would be separated from his vehicle for a few days. But days have now become weeks.

A Potential Resolution

An conclusion may be approaching. The council has said it will cooperate with McKenzie to – temporarily – lift the barriers to allow the car to be recovered. He said: "They have agreed to assist my insurance company's retrieval crew and try to arrange a day and an suitable way of extracting it that ensures no anybody at risk."

The vehicle has been significantly harmed and is probably to be written off. "At least I can say my Mini met its end in style – not everyone can say their vehicle was eaten by the Earth itself," McKenzie noted.

Authority Statement

A representative from the local council said it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it added: "The ground giving way did not happen on council land. We have made the area safe and informed the car owner that we will arrange to lift the fence to allow him to recover the vehicle.

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