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The initial indication Malcolm McKenzie had of his predicament was when a neighbor loudly knocked on his door and informed him his cherished Mini had fallen into a hole.

"I went out anticipating a small pothole under a tire or something like that. But when I walked out to take a look, I understood, oh, that really is a significant cavity," he explained.

His automobile had dropped into a 3-metre wide gap, possibly created by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has spent 25 days stuck in a bureaucratic "nightmare" trying to figure out how to retrieve his Mini.

The Core Issue: Unclaimed Property

The hitch is that the property has no registered owner. The local council has stated it can't remove the barriers cordoning off the hole until property rights had been established. "It's a bit of a nightmare," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance creative. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has lived in the neighborhood in Redruth for about 10 years and actually has a parking space beside his house, but it is not wide enough to be practical so he started leaving his car outside a nearby bakery. He had checked with both the bakery and the local authority that he wouldn't get a ticket.

"I'd finally felt like I was getting somewhere, I had a dependable small vehicle that was fuel-efficient and easy to keep on the road. It meant I could finally focus on trying to put money aside to take my child on her aspirational journey to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Aftermath

Then arrived that loud rapping on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The officers arrived and secured the zone off. We all had to stay in the houses because we can't get out without going past the hole. The road crew came out, erected the barrier up, and then they came out and placed a additional barrier up around it as well."

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

McKenzie thought he would be without his car for a short period. But that short time have now become weeks.

A Potential Solution

An end may be in sight. The council has stated it will work with McKenzie to – briefly – remove the fences to allow the car to be removed. He commented: "They are willing to assist my insurer's recovery team and try to arrange a date and an acceptable way of extracting it that doesn't put anybody at risk."

The vehicle has been badly damaged 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 car was swallowed by the ground beneath them," McKenzie noted.

Council Response

A representative from the authorities said it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it added: "The ground giving way did not happen on public property. We have secured the location and informed the car owner that we will arrange to lift the fence to enable 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 continue to monitor the vicinity to guarantee everyone's security."