British James Howells decided to stop searching for a hard drive that accidentally ended up in a landfill where 8 thousand bitcoins were stored. Their value today is about 950 million dollars. More than 10 years of searching, litigation and even an attempt to buy the landfill. All this turned out to be in vain: the city authorities of Newport never allowed excavations to begin.
James Howells took up mining back in 2009. And in just a few months, he received 8 thousand BTC USD. By 2013, bitcoins could have brought its owner 1 million dollars. But while sorting unnecessary things, the hard drive with the key file to the wallet accidentally ended up in a garbage container. Howells’ girlfriend accidentally threw it there.
All the following years, the Briton devoted to searching for the priceless disk. He figured out that the HDD was in the central landfill of Newport (Wales). Howells seemed to be close to his goal, but the authorities refused to allow excavations. The reason was possible problems with the local ecology.
The miner tried to negotiate with the city authorities of Newport in every possible way. At first, he offered 10% of the cost of the found bitcoins. He sued the municipality. Then he tried to buy out the entire landfill. All his attempts to return the hard drive with bitcoins were in vain.
Due to the excitement surrounding the search for the hard drive, they decided to fence the landfill and assign guards to it. It is reported that a solar power station is planned to be built on this site.
