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The first sign Malcolm McKenzie received of his predicament was when a neighbor urgently banged on his front door and told him his beloved Mini had fallen 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 proper hole," he explained.

His vehicle had dropped into a 3-metre wide gap, possibly created by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has spent 25 days caught in a administrative "nightmare" trying to figure out how to extricate his car.

The Main Issue: Unclaimed Land

The hitch is that the land has no registered owner. The authorities has stated it won't take down the fences cordoning off the sinkhole until land ownership had been established. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance designer. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has lived in the area in Redruth for about a decade and in fact has a parking space beside his house, but it is not wide enough to be practical so he began parking outside a local bakery. He had verified with both the shop and the local authority that he would avoid receiving a parking fine.

"I had finally reached a point like I was getting somewhere, I had a reliable little car that was fuel-efficient and simple to keep on the road. It signified I could finally focus on trying to put money aside to take my daughter on her aspirational journey to Japan someday. She's constantly dreamed to go."

The Event and Consequences

Then came that loud rapping on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was quite panicked. The police turned up and secured the area off. We all had to stay in the houses because we can't get out without going past the collapse. The highways people arrived, put the barrier up, and then they returned and put a additional barrier up around it as well."

It is believed the opening may be an unfortunate remnant of a historic local mine, a abandoned copper and tin mine.

McKenzie believed he would be without his vehicle for a short period. But that short time have now turned into weeks.

A Possible Solution

An conclusion may be in sight. The authorities has said it will cooperate with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the barriers to permit the Mini to be recovered. He commented: "They are willing to assist my insurance company's retrieval crew and try to arrange a day and an acceptable way of extracting it that ensures no anybody at danger."

The car has been significantly harmed and is likely to be written off. "At least I can say my Mini went out in a memorable way – not everyone can say their vehicle was eaten by the ground beneath them," McKenzie remarked.

Authority Statement

A representative from the local council said it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it said: "This collapse did not occur on council land. We have secured the location and informed the vehicle owner that we will organize to lift the barrier to enable him to retrieve the car.

"Since no one owns the land, our safety measures will remain in place until property ownership has been established, and we will persist to observe the vicinity to guarantee public safety."