🔗 Share this article Cornwall Resident Finds Vehicle in Mysterious Ground Collapse The first sign Malcolm McKenzie had of his situation was when a person living nearby urgently banged on his door and told him his beloved Mini had fallen into a opening. "I went out expecting a minor dip under a wheel or something similar. But when I went out to check it out, I realized, oh, that really is a proper hole," he stated. His automobile had descended into a 3-metre wide opening, possibly created by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has spent 25 days stuck in a bureaucratic "difficult situation" trying to figure out how to retrieve his car. The Core Issue: Unregistered Property The complication is that the property has no registered owner. The local council has said it can't remove the fences cordoning off the sinkhole until land ownership had been established. "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 in fact has a designated spot beside his house, but it is not wide enough to be useful so he started leaving his car outside a local 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 reliable little car that was fuel-efficient and easy to keep on the road. It meant I could at last focus on trying to put money aside to take my daughter on her aspirational journey to Japan one day. She's always wanted to go." The Event and Consequences Then arrived that knock on the door on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The police turned up and secured the area off. We all had to stay in the houses because we couldn't leave without passing by the hole. The highways people came out, put the fence up, and then they came out and placed a second fence up around it as well." It is believed the opening may be an unlucky remnant of Pednandrea Mine, a abandoned copper and tin mine. McKenzie believed he would be separated from his vehicle for a short period. But days have now become weeks. A Potential Solution An conclusion may be in sight. The council has stated it will cooperate with McKenzie to – temporarily – lift the fences to allow the Mini to be removed. He said: "They have agreed to work with my insurance company's retrieval crew and try to arrange a day and an suitable way of getting it out that doesn't put anybody at risk." The car has been badly damaged and is probably to be written off. "On the bright side I can say my Mini met its end in style – not everyone can say their vehicle was swallowed by the Earth itself," McKenzie remarked. Authority Statement A spokesperson from the authorities expressed it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it added: "The ground giving way did not happen on council land. We have secured the location and advised the car owner that we will arrange to lift the barrier to allow him to recover the car. "Since no one owns the land, our safety measures will stay up until property ownership has been established, and we will continue to observe the vicinity to ensure public safety."