IT engineer James Howells, 38, began mining Bitcoin back in 2009 when it was basically worthless, and had stored 8,000 units on his PC by the time it was accidentally thrown out by his ex-girlfriend during a clear-out in 2013 (it was stored in a bin bag which she mistook for rubbish).
As we know, the price of Bitcoin has gone flying in recent years, and James’s Bitcoin hard drive is now worth £620,000,000. Only problem is – it’s buried under literal tons of waste in a landfill site in Newport, Wales.
This story seems to do the rounds at least once a year or anytime the price of Bitcoin shoots up, but one person who’s absolutely sick of hearing about it is the young lady responsible for throwing out James’s now-lost hard drive – his ex-girlfriend Halfina Eddy-Evans. She told MailOnline this week that it’s actually all James’s fault, because he’s the one who asked her to take the rubbish out:
‘The computer part had been disposed of in a black sack along with other unwanted belongings and he begged me to take it away, saying “There’s a bag of rubbish here to be taken to the tip.”‘
‘I had no idea what was in it but I reluctantly dropped it off at the local tip on the way home from going on the school run.
‘I thought he should be running his errands, not me, but I did it to help out. Losing it was not my fault.’
Halfina, who has two sons with James, says she hopes James finds the drive because ‘it will shut him up’ (and presumably, would lend to the child support too):
‘I’d love nothing more than him to find it. I’m sick and tired of hearing about it.’
Unfortunately for James, after eleven years of pleading with Newport City Council for permission to search the site – even offering them a £55m reward if he finds the hard drive – they still won’t let him dig for the device, insisting they are bound by their licensing permit.
Even with millions of pounds as an incentive, one worker at the site has said the chances of finding James’s Bitcoin drive is effectively zero, telling MailOnline:
“There’s 24-hour security – everyone who works here knows about what’s supposed to be buried in the landfill under the hills. But the other problem is, where would they start looking? The two small hills cover several acres, they’d never find it. The owner has visited the site many times – if it’s here it’s under one of those two hills in the distance. He’s adamant but no one can know for sure if it’s here – some of the stuff that arrives is sent off to incinerators.”
The employee explained that even if the local authority gave Howells permission to under take the mammoth exercise: ‘It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack…. it would be impossible’. They added:
“Unless the computer stuff has some sort of homing device on it, there’s just no way. The fella should just forget about it and move on.”
Well, that’s easy for them to say. There’s over half a billion worth of Bitcoin on that thing! Even with 100,000 tonnes of waste to dig through, surely it’s worth a punt?
In any case, James announced last month that he was suing the council for nearly £500 million (the value of the Bitcoins at the time) in damages for ‘withholding my property without my consent’. I mean, at this point they may as well let him have a crack to at least give the guy some closure and end this whole saga once and for all, whether he finds it or not. Especially with all the cash incentives he’s offered them! Doesn’t sound like they have anything to lose really, does it? Quite the opposite in fact.
Come on Newport – give the man a chance to get his property back!
For the crypto bro named NFT Nick who is at war with the internet for ‘faking’ his wealthy lifestyle, click HERE.
