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The first sign the local man had of his situation was when a person living nearby loudly knocked on his front door and told him his beloved Mini had plunged into a opening.

"I stepped outside anticipating a small pothole under a wheel or something like that. But when I walked out to take a look, I realized, oh, that really is a significant cavity," he stated.

His vehicle had descended into a 10-foot wide gap, likely created by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has spent 25 days stuck in a bureaucratic "nightmare" trying to determine how to extricate his car.

The Core Problem: Unclaimed Property

The hitch is that the land has no registered owner. The local council has stated it won't take down the fences cordoning off the sinkhole until land ownership had been established. "It's a bit of a nightmare," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed creative. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has resided in the neighborhood in Redruth for about 10 years and in fact has a parking space next to his house, but it is too narrow to be practical so he started leaving his car outside a nearby bakery. He had checked with both the bakery and the council that he would avoid receiving a ticket.

"I'd finally felt like I was making progress, I had a dependable small vehicle that was fuel-efficient and easy to keep on the road. It meant I could finally focus on trying to save up to take my child on her dream trip to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Incident and Consequences

Then arrived that knock on the door on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The officers turned up and secured the zone off. We all had to remain in the homes because we couldn't leave without passing by the collapse. The highways people arrived, erected the fence up, and then they returned and placed a additional barrier up surrounding it as well."

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

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

A Possible Resolution

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

The car has been badly damaged and is likely to be written off. "On the bright side I can say my Mini went out in style – not everyone can say their vehicle was eaten by the ground beneath them," McKenzie noted.

Council Response

A spokesperson from the authorities said it sympathised with McKenzie. But it said: "This collapse did not happen on council land. We have made the area safe and informed the vehicle owner that we will organize to temporarily remove the barrier to allow him to recover the vehicle.

"As the land is unregistered, our barriers will remain in place until land ownership has been determined, and we will persist to observe the vicinity to guarantee everyone's security."