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The first indication the local man 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 anticipating a small pothole under a tire or something like that. But when I went out to take a look, I understood, oh, that truly is a proper hole," he explained.

His vehicle had dropped into a 10-foot wide opening, possibly created by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has spent 25 days stuck in a administrative "nightmare" trying to figure out how to extricate his Mini.

The Core Problem: Unclaimed Property

The complication is that the property isn't registered. The authorities has said it can't remove 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. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has resided in the area in Redruth for about a decade and actually 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 checked with both the shop and the council that he would avoid receiving a ticket.

"I had finally reached a point like I was getting somewhere, I had a dependable little car that was economical and easy to keep on the road. It signified I could finally focus on trying to put money aside to take my child on her dream trip to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then arrived that knock on the door on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was quite panicked. The officers arrived and secured the zone off. We all had to stay in the houses because we can't get out without passing by the hole. The road crew came out, put the fence up, and then they came out and placed a second fence up around it as well."

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

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

A Possible Resolution

An end may be in sight. The council has said it will cooperate with McKenzie to – temporarily – remove the barriers to allow the Mini to be recovered. He said: "They are willing to work with my insurer'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 badly damaged and is likely to be declared a total loss. "At least I can say my Mini met its end in style – not everyone can say their vehicle was swallowed by the Earth itself," McKenzie remarked.

Council Response

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

"As the land is unregistered, our barriers will remain in place until property ownership has been determined, and we will continue to monitor the surrounding area to ensure everyone's security."