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The first sign the local man received of his situation was when a neighbor loudly knocked on his door and told him his beloved Mini had fallen into a hole.

"I stepped outside anticipating a small pothole under a tire or something like that. But when I walked out to check it out, I understood, oh, that really is a significant cavity," he explained.

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

The Main Problem: Unclaimed Property

The complication is that the land isn't registered. The local council has said it can't remove the barriers cordoning off the sinkhole until land ownership had been established. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed designer. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has lived in the area 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 began parking outside a local bakery. He had checked with both the shop and the council that he wouldn't get a parking fine.

"I had finally reached a point like I was getting somewhere, I had a dependable little car that was fuel-efficient and easy to keep on the road. It signified I could finally focus on trying to save up to take my child on her dream trip to Japan one day. She's always wanted to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then arrived that knock on the door on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was quite panicked. The police turned up and closed the area off. We all had to stay in the houses because we couldn't leave without going past the collapse. The highways people arrived, put the fence up, and then they came out and put a additional barrier up surrounding it as well."

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

McKenzie thought he would be separated from his vehicle for a short period. But that short time have now become weeks.

A Potential Solution

An end may be approaching. The council has said it will cooperate with McKenzie to – briefly – remove the fences to permit the Mini to be removed. He said: "They are willing to assist my insurance company's retrieval crew and try to arrange a day and an suitable way of extracting it that doesn't put anybody at risk."

The vehicle has been badly damaged and is likely to be declared a total loss. "At least I can say my Mini went out in a memorable way – not everyone can say their vehicle was swallowed by the Earth itself," McKenzie remarked.

Authority Response

A representative from the authorities expressed it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it said: "The ground giving way did not happen on council land. We have made the area safe and advised the car owner that we will arrange to lift the barrier to enable him to recover the car.

"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."