Man Trying to Buy Entire Landfill to Recover Lost Bitcoin Hard Drive

Desperate Measures

We've long been fascinated by the tragic tale of one James Howells, a Welsh computer engineer whose crypto wallet-containing hard drive was accidentally thrown out by an ex-girlfriend — and with it, an increasingly valuable stash of thousands of bitcoins.

Now, in a beyond-last-ditch effort to recover his long-lost crypto wallet, Howells is attempting to purchase the entire landfill where he believes it may have been thrown away.

As the BBC reports, the 39-year-old has offered to buy the South Wales landfill where, he believes, his mistakenly-tossed old hard drive now resides.

Way back in 2013, the computer engineer went looking for his old hard drive that contained a stash of 8,000 bitcoins he'd purchased for next to nothing in 2009. After leaving it in a drawer for years, Howells decided to try to find the hard drive when Bitcoin started to gain in value — only to discover that his now-former paramour had thrown it out.

When Howells first began trying to find the old hard drive, the crypto wallet it contained was worth nearly $5 million. Today, that's the equivalent of more than $779 million, which makes the man's increasingly outrageous quest for its return sound a lot more sensical.

After repeated attempts to get the city council of his town to let him dig through the filth to find his buried treasure, Howells tried to sue the landfill or be given $612 million in compensation. This latest Hail Mary comes after a Welsh High Court denied that bid earlier in February because, as the judge presiding over the case put it, there were no "reasonable grounds" to bring the case after so much time had passed and "no realistic prospect" of Howells succeeding at a full trial.

Still, the jilted Welshman is pressing on after learning that the landfill is slated to close soon to make way for a solar farm.

"I have discussed this option recently with investment partners," Howells told the BBC, "and it is very much on the table."

Along with that potential purchase, the jilted computer engineer is also seeking to appeal the judge's ruling that overturned his case. It's clear that this one Bitcoin bro is not going down without a fight — and with that kind of money at stake, we can't say we blame him.

More on crypto: Elon Musk Proposes Putting US Treasury on Blockchain