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The first indication the local man had of his predicament was when a person living nearby urgently banged on his front door and told him his beloved Mini had plunged into a hole.

"I went out expecting a minor dip under a wheel or something like that. But when I went out to check it out, I understood, oh, that really is a significant cavity," he stated.

His vehicle had dropped into a 10-foot wide gap, possibly caused by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has spent 25 days caught in a administrative "nightmare" trying to figure out how to retrieve his car.

The Core Issue: Unregistered Land

The complication is that the land isn't registered. The authorities has stated it can't remove the fences blocking off the sinkhole until land ownership had been confirmed. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance designer. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has resided in the neighborhood in Redruth for about 10 years and in fact has a designated spot beside his house, but it is not wide enough to be useful so he started leaving his car outside a local bakery. He had verified with both the bakery and the local authority that he would avoid receiving a parking fine.

"I had finally reached a point like I was making progress, I had a reliable small vehicle that was economical and simple to keep on the road. It meant I could at last focus on trying to put money aside to take my child on her dream trip to Japan one day. She's constantly dreamed to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then arrived that loud rapping on a Saturday in November. "My neighbour was very alarmed. The officers arrived and secured 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 returned and put a additional barrier up around it as well."

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

McKenzie thought he would be separated from his car for a few days. But days have now turned into weeks.

A Possible Resolution

An conclusion may be in sight. The authorities has said it will work with McKenzie to – briefly – remove the fences to permit the car to be recovered. He said: "They have agreed to assist my insurance company's retrieval crew and try to schedule a day and an suitable way of extracting it that doesn't put anybody at danger."

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

Authority Response

A spokesperson from the local council expressed it sympathised with McKenzie. But it said: "The ground giving way did not happen on public property. We have secured the location and informed the car owner that we will organize to lift the barrier to allow him to recover the vehicle.

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