Imagine going outside to find your family car has disappeared from where it was left the night before. One might think immediately that the car had been stolen. Thoughts would churn through the head as to who should be called – the authorities and the car insurance provider of course. However, what if it was evident that the car was indeed gone from where it had been parked yet the reason was not theft but actually that it had been swallowed whole into the ground, who should be called?
The firefighters in Walter’s Ash, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire were called to a property early Sunday morning reporting that a young driver’s car had been swallowed into a severely deep sinkhole right outside the home of Phil Conran.
Mr. Conran, step-father of the young driver and owner of the missing Volkswagen Lupo, explained that the ground had simply taken the car down into a 30 foot deep hole. The diameter of the hole is estimated to be 15 feet wide. The car was resting at the bottom of the hole covered in ground debris and rubble from the sinkhole collapse.
In an interview, Mr. Conran remarked, “At 7am my daughter normally goes to the stables. She went out the front door and instead of her car being there, there was a huge hole.”
Sinkholes in the area are rare but reportedly are due to clay mining and occur without warning.
A representative of the Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service said, “Firefighters were called to a sinkhole which swallowed a parked car in the driveway of a house in Main Road, Walter’s Ash. Firefighters placed a cordon around it and gave safety advice.
“The incident was handed over to building control at Wycombe District Council. Firefighters were at the scene for about an hour.”
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