Woman accidentally dumps ex-partner's hard drive with Bitcoin worth Rs 5,900 cr in trash, man scours landfill

By Gargi Chaudhry | First Published Nov 27, 2024, 5:11 PM IST

A woman accidentally discarded her ex-partner's hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin, now worth a fortune. He's suing the city council for access to the landfill where it's buried, while she hopes he finds peace of mind.

A woman confessed to inadvertently throwing away her former partner's hard drive, which contained 8,000 Bitcoin, now valued at £569 million (Rs 5,900 crore approximately). At a landfill in Newport, Wales, the hard disk is said to be buried beneath one million tons of trash. James Howells' ex-girlfriend Halffina Eddy-Evans clarified that the hard drive was thrown away when cleaning the house. "He pleaded with me to carry a trash bag to the tip. What was within was unknown to me. It wasn't my fault that I lost it," she told MailOnline.

Eddy-Evans, who shares two teenage children with Howells, clarified she has no intention of claiming the potential fortune. "I hope he finds it, not that I want a penny. I just want him to stop talking about it. It's not helping his mental health," she added.

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However, Howells has not abandoned his "treasure hunt." He has filed a lawsuit against Newport City Council, claiming they have blocked access to the dump, for £495 million (Rs 4,900 crore). "This treasure search will continue. Every day, the value increases," he told Fortune.

Howells mined 8,000 Bitcoins in 2009, only to forget about them. During a cleaning, the hard disk that held the digital key to his bitcoin riches was thrown away. It is currently buried behind 100,000 tons of garbage at a landfill in Newport, where it is tantalizingly out of reach.

However, the council has repeatedly turned down his petitions, claiming that they are unable to allow excavation under current permissions and that environmental concerns are the reason. A spokeswoman stated, "Excavation is not possible under our environmental permit, and such work would have a huge negative impact on the area."

Howells, who was determined to get the hard drive back, promised to contribute 10% of the Bitcoin's worth to make Newport "the Dubai or Las Vegas of the UK."

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