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The initial indication the local man had of his predicament was when a neighbor loudly knocked on his front door and informed him his beloved Mini had plunged into a hole.

"I went out expecting a small pothole under a wheel or something like that. But when I went out to take a look, I realized, oh, that truly is a proper hole," he explained.

His vehicle had descended into a 3-metre wide opening, likely created by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has spent 25 days caught in a bureaucratic "nightmare" trying to figure out how to retrieve his Mini.

The Main Issue: Unclaimed Land

The complication is that the property has no registered owner. The authorities has said it won't take down 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 creative. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has lived in the area in Redruth for about 10 years and in fact has a parking space beside his house, but it is too narrow to be useful so he began parking outside a nearby bakery. He had checked with both the shop and the council that he would avoid receiving a ticket.

"I'd finally felt like I was getting somewhere, I had a dependable small vehicle that was economical and simple to keep on the road. It meant I could at last focus on trying to save up to take my child on her aspirational journey to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Incident and Consequences

Then arrived that knock on the door on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The officers turned up and secured the area off. We all had to remain in the homes because we can't get out without passing by the hole. The highways people came out, put the barrier up, and then they returned and placed a second fence up surrounding it as well."

It is believed the opening may be an unfortunate remnant of a historic local mine, a abandoned mining site.

McKenzie thought he would be separated from his car for a few days. But days have now become weeks.

A Possible Resolution

An end may be approaching. The council has said it will cooperate with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the fences to permit the Mini to be recovered. He said: "They have agreed to work with my insurance company's retrieval crew and try to schedule a date and an suitable way of extracting it that doesn't put anybody at danger."

The car has been significantly harmed and is likely to be declared a total loss. "At least I can say my Mini went out in style – not everyone can claim their car was swallowed by the Earth itself," McKenzie remarked.

Council Statement

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

"Since no one owns the land, our barriers will remain in place until property ownership has been established, and we will continue to monitor the surrounding area to ensure everyone's security."