James Howells, whose girlfriend accidentally threw away 8,000 Bitcoin in Newport, would have had $800 million when Bitcoin reached $100,000 today.
On Monday, Howells attended a Welsh court to plead his case and search the Newport landfill for the lost Bitcoin.
A Lost Bitcoin Fortune Buarried in Welsh Landfill
During the Cardiff civil court hearing on December 2, the council sought to have Howells’ case dismissed. The council’s legal team argued that any items disposed of at the landfill become council property.
They dismissed Howells’ offer to share the recovered funds, labeling it an attempt to purchase something the council legally cannot sell.
In contrast, Howells’ legal team, led by Dean Armstrong KC, contended that the search involves a carefully targeted excavation. Armstrong emphasized that the plan is supported by experts in data recovery and excavation who are working on a contingency basis, with compensation tied to the recovery of the Bitcoin.
“Somewhere in a Newport garbage dump there’s a hard drive with 8,000 BTC (so now $704 million) on it. Rumor has it James Howells is still sifting through trash today. See, you can feel better about any investing mistakes you’ve never lost that much,” Adam Singer wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
A Series of Misfortune
In 2013, Howells mistakenly placed the hard drive in a black bag during an office cleanup. His partner at the time, mistaking it for trash, took the bag to the local dump.
Shortly after realizing the mistake, Howells approached the Newport City Council, offering to share a portion of the lost Bitcoin for permission to search the site. Howells even offered a 25% reward to the council to approve the digging.
However, the council has consistently rejected his requests. If his request is denied, Howells’s story will go down as a historic Bitcoin misfortune – similar to the Bitcoin Pizza Day story.
Back in 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas, which were $41 at the time. These BTC would’ve been worth a billion dollars today after Bitcoin reached its $100,000 milestone.
Yet, both Howells and Hanyecz’s stories will be remembered as shocking misfortunes in the history of digital assets. There’s still some hope for Howells if the Welsh court approves his plans to search the Newport council landfill. However, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack or worse.
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