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The initial indication the local man had of his predicament was when a person living nearby urgently banged on his door and informed him his cherished Mini had fallen into a hole.

"I stepped outside anticipating a small pothole under a wheel or something like that. But when I walked out to take a look, I understood, oh, that really is a proper hole," he explained.

His automobile had descended into a 10-foot wide gap, likely created by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has spent 25 days stuck in a administrative "difficult situation" trying to figure out how to retrieve his car.

The Core Problem: Unregistered Land

The hitch is that the property has no registered owner. The authorities has said it won't take down the barriers cordoning off the sinkhole until property rights had been established. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed creative. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has resided in the neighborhood in Redruth for about a decade and actually has a parking space beside his house, but it is too narrow to be useful so he started leaving his car outside a nearby bakery. He had checked with both the shop and the local authority that he wouldn't get a ticket.

"I had finally reached a point like I was making progress, I had a dependable small vehicle 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 constantly dreamed to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then arrived that loud rapping on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The officers turned up and secured the area off. We all had to remain in the houses because we can't get out without going past the collapse. The highways people came out, erected the barrier up, and then they came out and put a second fence up surrounding it as well."

It is believed the hole may be an unfortunate legacy of a historic local mine, a disused copper and tin mine.

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

A Potential Resolution

An end may be approaching. The council has stated it will work with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the barriers to allow the Mini to be recovered. He said: "They have agreed to assist my insurer's recovery team and try to schedule a day and an suitable way of extracting it that ensures no anybody at danger."

The car has been badly damaged and is probably 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.

Authority Response

A representative from the local council said it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it said: "The ground giving way did not happen on council land. We have secured the location and advised the car owner that we will organize to temporarily remove the fence to allow him to retrieve the car.

"Since no one owns the land, our barriers will remain in place until property ownership has been determined, and we will persist to observe the vicinity to ensure everyone's security."