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The first sign Malcolm McKenzie had of his predicament was when a person living nearby loudly knocked on his door and informed him his beloved Mini had fallen into a opening.

"I stepped outside expecting a minor dip under a tire or something similar. But when I went out to check it out, I realized, oh, that truly is a proper hole," he stated.

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

The Core Problem: Unregistered Land

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 property rights 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 resided in the area in Redruth for about a decade and actually has a designated spot next to his house, but it is not wide enough to be practical so he started leaving his car outside a nearby bakery. He had verified with both the bakery and the local authority that he wouldn't get a parking fine.

"I'd finally felt like I was getting somewhere, I had a reliable small vehicle that was economical and simple to keep on the road. It signified I could at last focus on trying to put money aside to take my daughter on her dream trip to Japan one day. She's constantly dreamed to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then arrived that loud rapping on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was quite panicked. The officers turned up and secured the area off. We all had to stay in the homes because we couldn't leave without going past the hole. The road crew came out, erected the fence up, and then they returned and placed a second fence up around it as well."

It is believed the hole may be an unfortunate remnant of Pednandrea Mine, a disused mining site.

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

A Potential Solution

An end may be approaching. The authorities has stated it will work with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the fences to permit the car to be recovered. He commented: "They have agreed to work with my insurer's recovery team and try to schedule 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 likely to be declared a total loss. "At least I can say my Mini went out in a memorable way – not everyone can claim their car was eaten by the Earth itself," McKenzie noted.

Council Response

A spokesperson from the local council expressed it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it added: "This collapse did not occur on public property. We have secured the location 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 land ownership has been established, and we will persist to monitor the vicinity to guarantee everyone's security."