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The initial indication Malcolm McKenzie had of his predicament was when a neighbor urgently banged on his door and informed him his beloved Mini had plunged into a opening.

"I stepped outside expecting 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 stated.

His vehicle had dropped into a 3-metre wide gap, possibly caused by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has spent 25 days stuck in a administrative "difficult situation" trying to determine how to extricate his car.

The Core Problem: Unclaimed Land

The hitch is that the land isn't registered. The authorities 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 self-employed designer. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has resided in the area 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 nearby bakery. He had verified with both the bakery and the local authority that he wouldn't get a ticket.

"I'd finally felt like I was getting somewhere, I had a dependable little car that was economical and simple to keep on the road. It meant I could at last focus on trying to save up to take my child on her dream trip to Japan one day. She's constantly dreamed to go."

The Event and Consequences

Then came that knock on the door on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The police turned up and secured the area off. We all had to remain in the houses because we couldn't leave without passing by the hole. The road crew came out, erected the fence up, and then they returned and put a additional barrier up around it as well."

It is thought the hole may be an unfortunate remnant of Pednandrea Mine, a disused mining site.

McKenzie thought he would be without his car for a few days. But days have now turned into weeks.

A Potential Resolution

An end 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 are willing to work with my insurer's recovery team and try to schedule a date and an acceptable way of extracting it that doesn't put anybody at risk."

The car has been significantly harmed and is probably to be declared a total loss. "On the bright side I can say my Mini met its end in style – not everyone can claim their car was eaten by the ground beneath them," McKenzie noted.

Authority Statement

A spokesperson from the authorities said it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it added: "This collapse did not occur on public property. We have made the area safe and advised the vehicle owner that we will arrange to lift the fence to allow him to recover the car.

"As the land is unregistered, our safety measures will remain in place until land ownership has been determined, and we will persist to monitor the vicinity to ensure public safety."