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The first indication Malcolm McKenzie received of his predicament was when a neighbor loudly knocked on his front door and told him his cherished Mini had plunged into a opening.

"I went out expecting a minor dip under a tire or something like that. But when I walked out to take a look, I understood, oh, that truly is a significant cavity," he explained.

His vehicle had descended into a 10-foot wide gap, likely caused by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has endured 25 days caught in a administrative "nightmare" trying to determine how to retrieve his car.

The Core Problem: Unregistered Property

The hitch is that the land isn't registered. The authorities has said it can't remove the fences cordoning off the sinkhole until land ownership had been confirmed. "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 area in Redruth for about a decade and in fact has a designated spot beside his house, but it is not wide enough to be practical so he began parking outside a local bakery. He had checked with both the shop and the local authority that he would avoid receiving a ticket.

"I'd finally felt like I was getting somewhere, I had a reliable small vehicle that was economical and easy to keep on the road. It signified I could at last focus on trying to save up to take my child on her aspirational journey to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Consequences

Then arrived that knock on the door on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was quite panicked. The officers arrived and secured the zone off. We all had to stay in the houses because we can't get out without passing by the collapse. The road crew came out, put 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 unlucky remnant of a historic local mine, a disused copper and tin mine.

McKenzie believed he would be without his vehicle for a short period. But days have now become weeks.

A Possible Solution

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 insurance company's retrieval crew and try to schedule a day and an suitable way of extracting it that ensures no anybody at risk."

The vehicle 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 swallowed by the Earth itself," McKenzie remarked.

Authority Statement

A representative from the authorities expressed it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it said: "The ground giving way did not happen on public property. We have secured the location and advised the car owner that we will arrange to lift the fence to enable him to recover 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 monitor the surrounding area to ensure everyone's security."