That's a hole lotta trouble: Couple's car swallowed up by 10ft-deep sinkhole as 11 families left homeless

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By Mail Foreign Service

Holey car! Sandy Burnham's Toyota Camry in a sinkhole at her flat block car park in Tampa, Florida


When you lose something precious, it can often be found in the last place you expected.

For Sandy Burnham that was certainly true when she woke up one morning and discovered her car was missing.

After first thinking it may have been stolen, was stunned to discover her Toyota Camry was 10ft below ground after the parking space collapsed.

The sinkhole beneath a block of flats in Tampa, Florida, swallowed up her vehicle and – worse still – forced Mrs Burnham and 11 other families to evacuate.

‘It is a really surreal vision. You don't expect to see your car nose down, trunk up in a hole. It looks like someone picked it up and threw it down there,’ the shop worker said.

‘I don’t now whether to laugh or cry.’

Planning officials say the building next to the sinkhole is unfit for people to live in and Mrs Burnham and her husband Sean have been forced to move.


Sink estate: The giant hole seen from above the complex which has been deemed unfit to live in by authorities


Danger: The 20ft-wide hole is still growing and could also swallow up the building next to it


Fire Rescue Chief Frank Fernandez, who first attended the scene on Sunday, said the hole is continuing to grow.

The Burnhams have been left further dismayed by the news that their insurers won’t cover the 15-year-old car for any damage.

Without a car, Mrs Burnham can't drive to work and Mr Burnham, who is unemployed, can't look for a job.

‘I do not know what to do, that car was our lifeline,’ Mrs Burnham added.
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