In a desperate bid to recover his lost fortune, a computer expert is planning to purchase an entire landfill in South Wales, where he believes his hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin, worth a staggering $775 million (nearly Rs 6,500 crores), is buried. According to the Guardian, James Howells’ desperate attempt comes after a 12-year search and a recent high court defeat, which denied him permission to search the landfill.

With the council announcing plans to close and cap the site, and even securing permission for a solar farm on part of the land, Howells’ chances of recovering his lost Bitcoin seemed all but lost. However, by buying the landfill, he hopes to gain access to the site and finally retrieve his prized hard drive.

‘It was quite a surprise to hear of the landfill’s closure. It [the council] claimed at the high court that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a huge detrimental impact on the people of Newport, whilst at the same time they were planning to close the landfill anyway,” he said.

“I expected it would be closed in the coming years because it’s 80/90% full – but didn’t expect its closure so soon. If Newport City Council would be willing, I would potentially be interested in purchasing the landfill site ‘as is’ and have discussed this option with investment partners and it is something that is very much on the table,” he added. 

James Howells threw away $750 million of bitcoin accidentally a decade ago and has been trying to recover the hard drive from a landfill ever since. Today, a judge has rejected his latest attempt to search through 110,000 tons of garbage for his digital gold. pic.twitter.com/douIDzDdQO

— Documenting ₿itcoin (@DocumentingBTC) January 11, 2025

What exactly happened?

James Howell’s multimillion-dollar misfortune began in 2013 when his partner mistakenly threw away a hard drive containing the keys to his Bitcoin wallet. Now buried under 100,000 tonnes of waste in a Newport landfill, the hard drive remains inaccessible despite its growing value.  

Halfina Eddy-Evans, the mother of Howells’ two teenage sons, told Daily Mail that nearly a decade ago, she took the hard drive to a landfill in Newport, Wales, as part of a cleanup at Howells’ request. “Yes, I threw away his rubbish. He asked me to,” she explained. “I had no idea what was inside. Losing it wasn’t my fault.”  

Nigel Hunt, a 59-year-old British man from the Isles of Scilly, narrowly escaped death after a seemingly minor spider bite that turned into a life-threatening ordeal. While lying in bed at home on August 30, Mr Hunt was bitten by a potentially deadly spider on his stomach. Initially, he felt no pain and thought nothing of it. However, just four days later, on his way to a holiday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, he became severely ill, BBC reported. He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors operated on his stomach after suspecting an abscess. 

However, further diagnosis revealed something far more serious- necrotising fasciitis, a rare and deadly condition known as “flesh-eating disease.” He then underwent an emergency surgery, that saved his life. 

Speaking of the ordeal, he recounted, ”On arriving at the airport and travelling through check-in we made our way to departures. At this point, everything seemed to deteriorate quite quickly from being sick in the departure lounge to having my head in a sick bag for most of the journey. On arrival at Sharm El Sheikh, we collected our belongings and made our way to the pharmacy for some antibiotics or something to help with the sickness. They prescribed a couple of things and the following day we went to the hospital to be prescribed the same medication.”

”The next two days started to get worse so we went to a different hospital in Hadaba where straight away I had blood tests and ultrasound scans. Then we waited a couple of hours for the doctor to check the results. He called us in saying it was a good job we had come in because the bite was from either a false widow or a brown recluse spider,” he added.

According to the NHS website, necrotising fasciitis is a rare and life-threatening infection that can happen if a wound gets infected and it needs to be treated in a hospital straight away.

Mr Hunt credits his second hospital visit with saving his life. He recalls, “If I hadn’t gone back to the hospital for a second examination within that critical 6-10 day window, I wouldn’t be alive today.”

Although he’s on the road to recovery, Mr Hunt still faces a long journey ahead. His wound remains open, requiring regular dressing changes every few days.

He has also issued a stark warning to his fellow residents on the Isles of Scilly. “I feel it’s essential to alert everyone to be cautious and check for spiders,” he emphasised.