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The initial indication the local man received of his situation was when a person living nearby urgently banged on his door and told him his cherished Mini had plunged into a hole.

"I stepped outside anticipating a minor dip under a wheel or something similar. But when I went out to take a look, I understood, oh, that really is a proper hole," he explained.

His vehicle had descended into a 10-foot wide opening, possibly caused by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has endured 25 days caught in a administrative "difficult situation" trying to figure out how to extricate his Mini.

The Core Issue: Unregistered Property

The complication is that the land has no registered owner. The authorities has stated it can't remove the fences blocking off the hole until land ownership had been confirmed. "It's a bit of a nightmare," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance creative. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has resided in the neighborhood in Redruth for about a decade and actually has a parking space next to his house, but it is not wide enough to be useful so he began parking outside a local bakery. He had checked with both the bakery and the council that he would avoid receiving a ticket.

"I'd finally felt like I was making progress, I had a dependable small vehicle that was economical and simple 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 one day. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Consequences

Then came that loud rapping on a Saturday in November. "My neighbour was very alarmed. The officers arrived and closed the zone off. We all had to stay in the houses because we couldn't leave without passing by the collapse. The road crew came out, erected the barrier up, and then they returned and placed a additional barrier up around it as well."

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

McKenzie believed he would be separated from his car for a short period. But days have now become weeks.

A Potential Solution

An end may be in sight. The authorities has stated it will cooperate with McKenzie to – temporarily – lift the fences to allow the Mini to be removed. He commented: "They have agreed to assist my insurance company's recovery team and try to arrange a date and an acceptable way of getting it out that doesn't put anybody at risk."

The vehicle has been badly damaged and is probably to be written off. "At least I can say my Mini went out in a memorable way – not everyone can claim their vehicle was eaten by the Earth itself," McKenzie remarked.

Authority Response

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

"Since no one owns the land, our barriers will stay up until property ownership has been determined, and we will continue to observe the vicinity to ensure public safety."