The main character in this story is James Howells – a man who should probably be called the unluckiest man in the world. The reason is also very simple as he is the character who made the whole world stir because he threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin (BTC) in the trash.
Of course, at that time, Bitcoin was not yet considered a valuable asset like it is today. Originally a software engineer, James mined 8,000 Bitcoins in 2009, mainly to satisfy his interest in technology and his passion for computers.
But this hobby had to end because of a very funny thing. His then-girlfriend, Halfina Eddy-Evans, constantly complained about the loud noise from the PC's cooling fan causing her to lose sleep. From there, James' Bitcoin mining job ended, but he also accumulated a decent amount for himself.
More importantly, an incident later occurred when he accidentally spilled lemon juice on his computer, causing permanent damage. However, he still kept that hard drive worth 8,000 Bitcoins in the closet. Yet in 2013, Mrs. Halfina Eddy-Evans, when asked to clean her boyfriend's room, immediately threw the hard drive into a trash bag.
The case caused a fever again when Ms. Halfina Eddy-Evans also admitted that she was the one who threw away this huge fortune. With the current Bitcoin price near $100,000, 8,000 BTC would be worth about $800 million. And according to Ms. Halfina Eddy-Evans, her only wish is for her boyfriend to find the above money back. Not to make her rich, but so Mr. James could stop talking about it.
For his part, Mr. James sued the Newport City Council and requested damages of about $647 million for refusing his request to excavate the landfill that buried his hard drive.
