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

"I stepped outside expecting a small pothole under a tire or something similar. But when I walked out to take a look, I realized, oh, that truly is a proper hole," he explained.

His automobile had dropped into a 3-metre wide opening, likely caused by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has endured 25 days stuck in a bureaucratic "nightmare" trying to determine how to retrieve his car.

The Core Problem: Unregistered Property

The hitch is that the property isn't registered. The authorities has said it won't take down the barriers blocking off the sinkhole until land ownership had been confirmed. "It's a bit of a nightmare," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed designer. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has lived in the area 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 began parking outside a local 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 making progress, I had a dependable small vehicle that was fuel-efficient and easy to keep on the road. It meant I could at last focus on trying to put money aside to take my daughter on her dream trip to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Incident and Consequences

Then arrived that loud rapping on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The police arrived and secured the zone off. We all had to stay in the homes because we couldn't leave without passing by the hole. The road crew arrived, put the fence up, and then they came out and placed a second fence up surrounding it as well."

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

McKenzie believed he would be without his car for a few days. But that short time have now become weeks.

A Potential Solution

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

The car has been badly damaged and is probably to be declared a total loss. "On the bright side I can say my Mini went out in style – not everyone can say their car was swallowed by the Earth itself," McKenzie remarked.

Authority Statement

A representative from the local council expressed it sympathised with McKenzie. But it added: "This collapse did not occur on council land. We have made the area safe and informed the car owner that we will organize to temporarily remove the barrier to allow him to recover the car.

"Since no one owns the land, our barriers will stay up until property ownership has been determined, and we will persist to observe the surrounding area to ensure everyone's security."