Redruth Man Finds Vehicle in Mysterious Ground Collapse

The first sign the local man had of his situation was when a person living nearby urgently banged on his front door and told him his beloved Mini had plunged into a hole.

"I went out expecting a minor dip under a tire or something like that. But when I went out to check it out, I realized, oh, that truly is a significant cavity," he stated.

His automobile had dropped into a 10-foot wide gap, likely caused by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has endured 25 days stuck in a bureaucratic "nightmare" trying to determine how to retrieve his Mini.

The Main Problem: Unregistered Property

The hitch is that the land has no registered owner. The authorities has stated it won't take down the fences cordoning off the hole until property rights had been confirmed. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance creative. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has lived 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 started leaving his car outside a local bakery. He had checked with both the bakery and the council that he would avoid receiving a parking fine.

"I'd finally felt like I was making progress, I had a reliable little car 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 daughter on her aspirational journey to Japan someday. She's constantly dreamed to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then came that knock on the door on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The police turned up and closed the area off. We all had to stay in the houses because we couldn't leave without going past the hole. The highways people arrived, put the fence up, and then they came out and placed a second fence up surrounding it as well."

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

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

A Possible Resolution

An end may be approaching. The authorities has stated it will cooperate with McKenzie to – temporarily – remove the barriers to permit the Mini to be removed. He said: "They are willing to work with my insurer's retrieval crew and try to arrange a day and an suitable way of extracting it that ensures no anybody at danger."

The vehicle has been significantly harmed and is likely to be declared a total loss. "At least I can say my Mini met its end in a memorable way – not everyone can claim their vehicle was swallowed by the ground beneath them," McKenzie noted.

Council Response

A representative from the authorities expressed it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it said: "The ground giving way did not happen on council land. We have secured the location and informed the vehicle owner that we will organize to temporarily remove the fence to allow him to recover the car.

"Since no one owns the land, our barriers will remain in place until land ownership has been established, and we will continue to observe the surrounding area to guarantee public safety."