UK court rejects bid from James Howells to recover his hard drive from landfill

[nullama]

7,500 BTC are forever locked with a key that is now unrecoverable in a dumpster in the UK as the judge decided that the hard drive is now property of the city council after it was dumped in the landfill.



Now worth around $750 million, the key to these Bitcoins were saved in a hard drive that was accidentally thrown into the dumpster in 2013.

During more than a decade, James Howells has been trying to contact everyone in the UK to try to recover his hard drive, but recently a judge decided that it would be a waste of time, and that actually the hard drive is owned by the council.

Honestly, I don't think it would be even possible to recover the keys from that dumpster after all this time.

sources:

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/uk-mans-bitcoin-treasure-worth-750-million-lost-forever-after-court-rejects-his-bid-to-recover-it-7458237

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/judge-halts-attempt-to-retrieve-hard-drive-with-nearly-750-million-in-bitcoin-on-it-from-landfill/ar-BB1rePar

[fikrett]

Yep, agreed.
Probably because the drive would be damaged harshly or filled with god knows what.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

And it's probably a lost cause though, hard drive could be damage by this time and even if he offers a lot of money to the government or the city council, not much is guarantee for a recovery.

Although if this happened to us, we will do everything in our power to at least make a effort to recover it. But then again, it has been many years and his chances are slim to none to be able to get it back intact and found his millions of BTC.

[FortuneFollower]

And it's probably a lost cause though, hard drive could be damage by this time and even if he offers a lot of money to the government or the city council, not much is guarantee for a recovery.

Although if this happened to us, we will do everything in our power to at least make a effort to recover it. But then again, it has been many years and his chances are slim to none to be able to get it back intact and found his millions of BTC.

And every year, we would probably want to recover this drive too 
It's a treasure that becomes more valuable with each cycle.

[asriloni]

He lost his money caused by his own fault. He must accept it.

I really support judge's decision about his broken drive. That's enough to say it will never able to be recovered. It's also good bitcoin's total supply is also decreasing quite a lot.

I believe he's feeling more stressed after seeing court's decision regarding his broken drive. He may be still begging to the enter the landfill to find his drive, but i think his drive is hardly damaged.

James Howells is truly legend who throw away world's biggest airball.

[fikrett]

He lost his money caused by his own fault. He must accept it.

I really support judge's decision about his broken drive. That's enough to say it will never able to be recovered. It's also good bitcoin's total supply is also decreasing quite a lot.

I believe he's feeling more stressed after seeing court's decision regarding his broken drive. He may be still begging to the enter the landfill to find his drive, but i think his drive is hardly damaged.

James Howells is truly legend who throw away world's biggest airball.

If we were in his shoes, we would probably think the same about it.
The struggle has ended, but we would still cling to the possibility of changing the tide of the situation.
So the judge did the correct thing, in my opinion.

[Lucius]

~snip~
James Howells is truly legend who throw away world's biggest airball.

A legend in what sense, not something positive, right? According to his claims, he was among the first ten people who mined BTC, and he also claims that the HDD contains the IP address of Satoshi.

Besides, JH didn't literally throw that HDD in the trash, his girlfriend did it - but she shouldn't be blamed too much for that either, because if the HDD had been in some hidden place and not in a drawer without a key, then it wouldn't have ended up in the trash. The fact is that at that time that HDD was not of any value to JH, and if he knew exactly what he had in his possession, this story would never have happened.

The judge is right in any case, that HDD ceased to be his property the moment it ended up in the trash.

[Hispo]

~snip~
James Howells is truly legend who throw away world's biggest airball.

...

The judge is right in any case, that HDD ceased to be his property the moment it ended up in the trash.

Makes me wonder whether there will be some time in the future those Bitcoins are worth so much that the council of the city itself will be willing to put some money aside in order to search for the HDD themselves, if they did and actually found them it would be the biggest plot-twist in this epic story. To be honest, I cannot help but feel bad for that man, he probably cannot longer live a normal life and be okey with himself because all the time and energy he has invested and all the money he (or his gf) literally threw in the trash can.

Also, that ruling implies anything in the land-fill of the city is not longer of the property of their original owner? In my country, of someone seee something useful or something or value in their trash, one first needs to ask for permission before going for it and take it.

[moneystery]

the court's decision to reject his bid to retrieve his hard drive from the landfill was correct, because this case itself started from his own mistake of throwing his hard drive in the dumpster and he should have been held responsible for that, instead of filing a lawsuit in the hope that he could get his hard drive back. and it's been 12 years since he threw his hard drive in the landfill, i don't think his hard drive would survive in a place like that. so what he said about him wanting to share 25% of his bitcoins if he managed to get them is just wishful thinking, because the chances are very very small, even nonexistent.

[Davidvictorson]

Honestly, I don't think it would be even possible to recover the keys from that dumpster after all this time.

It was in October 2024 that I read the news where he sued the council. He lost the case. The judge is rather helping to put him out of his misery. Now, he will no longer hope that he'll find it but has to accept that it is gone and gone forever. What still bugs me is that was this some ignorant error because the bitcoin he has in that hard drive would have been worth more than $300000 in 2013.  If from that time the effort in time, and money he put into finding the hard drive was directed towards buying new bitcoins, as at 2025, the memory of the loss would have been erased and he would have amassed close to amount of bitcoin lost, if not more.

[Porfirii]

Honestly, I don't think it would be even possible to recover the keys from that dumpster after all this time.

It was in October 2024 that I read the news where he sued the council. He lost the case. The judge is rather helping to put him out of his misery. Now, he will no longer hope that he'll find it but has to accept that it is gone and gone forever. What still bugs me is that was this some ignorant error because the bitcoin he has in that hard drive would have been worth more than $300000 in 2013.  If from that time the effort in time, and money he put into finding the hard drive was directed towards buying new bitcoins, as at 2025, the memory of the loss would have been erased and he would have amassed close to amount of bitcoin lost, if not more.

I don't know if it help him to put him out of his misery, but after more than ten years thinking that you are close to get from somehow financially covered - 300k is still a really big amount, to filthy rich has to be psychologically devastating to know that it was no more than a dream you definitely know that will never come true (not to talk about his relatives, friends, etc. who will always know him as the man who dumped millions by mistake).

[PrivacyG]

I would imagine this Hard Drive, even if found, might be about impossible to retrieve information from.  Liquids may have poured over it, insects may have damaged it and corrosion may have killed it entirely.  I also imagine a significant portion of the people who work at the said landfill have already heard about the potential Billion Dollars lost in the middle of it and may have desperately looked for his Hard Drive, possibly even damaging it in the process.

The situation of searching through landfill for hidden monetary value seems extremely dystopian and I really think after this time and effort it is all right to accept the defeat.  He will probably not find it or recover any Bitcoin out of it.  And the more he despairs, the more Money it will cost him.  At the end of the road, he might lose both his Bitcoin and a LOT of Money out of his pockets.  It is definitely not worth it if you ask me.

-----

He lost his money caused by his own fault. He must accept it.

I really support judge's decision about his broken drive. That's enough to say it will never able to be recovered. It's also good bitcoin's total supply is also decreasing quite a lot.

You honestly sound like you are happy of his suffering only because it provides you an advantage.  It is true that lost Bitcoin provide an advantage to everybody else, but I presume he has his right to try his best to achieve what looks like an impossible dream.

[lovesmayfamilis]

How many stories of these failed millionaires have we heard? I wonder how much money he spent searching for something that was never found. What does he have in the end? A lot of wasted time and nerves, which hurt his health, a lot of money that was allocated for the search, and a lot of energy. Ten years of life, is it worth the amount that he did not find? How many lives does he have? People forget that they are mortal and that sometimes life is cut short very quickly. But this guy spent half his life digging in the trash. Life was good!

[franky1]

a few things to think about:

city council is publicly funded by tax so its all "our" council, not a private business. so them acting like the hard drive is property of a business and not the community/citizens, seems off.
secondly imagine a vile person that threw a pet in the trash. the city council wont then legally just adopt the animal, instead they would find the owner that put it in the trash and hold them responsible.. so by that analogy/logic, the guy still has some custody/ownership responsibility of things found in landfill

i fully acknowledge and accept the 'environmental'/safety/policy reasoning to deny access, but the wording of them saying its the councils property and thus denying the guy has rights, is a iffy but appeal-able action


but with all that said
although the guy did do research years ago to narrow down a section of the landfill that the truck dumped his trash that day, over time there have been excavators pushing trash around as they turn mounds of trash into spread out thin layers over a wider space, so the hard drive can be anywhere by now

and ofcourse time.. could cause damage, erosion and rust to the hard drive, and with lots of nasty grimy fluid and weather the condition of the hard drive data may not be recoverable

also the workers at the landfill may have done a independent search internally. however no movement of the coins shows its unlikely anyone found the hard drive

so overall its a project to give up on/end attempts.. even though the guy might still think he has a right to fight the court and the dream/delusion of there being a chance of recover

[MusaMohamed]

7,500 BTC are forever locked with a key that is now unrecoverable in a dumpster in the UK as the judge decided that the hard drive is now property of the city council after it was dumped in the landfill.

It's not like whether it is a property of the city now, it's potential environmental issues if they allow James to do that.

News like this appears time to time if James won't give up, but I believe UK court and the city will not change their stance and decision on this. Time passes and chance for James to rescue his hard drive and bitcoin will be smaller. Imagine if 10 years later, they allow him to do that, will he succeed, chance decreases a lot than now to nearly 0%.

[Meik777]

Such a wild story and a reminder of how unforgiving early Bitcoin storage methods were.BTC

[avikz]

It's very unfortunate! I can somewhat relate to this situation because I too have lost around 350k Dogecoin in a scam back in 2019. It didn't bother me much at that time because the value was negligible that time. But now it's really significant as per my local currency.

According to UK law, once something is dumped in the landfill, it becomes the property of the government. So even if the hard drive is found and the data is recoverable, James can't claim it. The government will take it all. End of story. Period.

[Meik777]

a few things to think about:

city council is publicly funded by tax so its all "our" council, not a private business. so them acting like the hard drive is property of a business and not the community/citizens, seems off.
secondly imagine a vile person that threw a pet in the trash. the city council wont then legally just adopt the animal, instead they would find the owner that put it in the trash and hold them responsible.. so by that analogy/logic, the guy still has some custody/ownership responsibility of things found in landfill

i fully acknowledge and accept the 'environmental'/safety/policy reasoning to deny access, but the wording of them saying its the councils property and thus denying the guy has rights, is a iffy but appeal-able action


but with all that said
although the guy did do research years ago to narrow down a section of the landfill that the truck dumped his trash that day, over time there have been excavators pushing trash around as they turn mounds of trash into spread out thin layers over a wider space, so the hard drive can be anywhere by now

and ofcourse time.. could cause damage, erosion and rust to the hard drive, and with lots of nasty grimy fluid and weather the condition of the hard drive data may not be recoverable

also the workers at the landfill may have done a independent search internally. however no movement of the coins shows its unlikely anyone found the hard drive

so overall its a project to give up on/end attempts.. even though the guy might still think he has a right to fight the court and the dream/delusion of there being a chance of recover

You make some excellent points! The city council's position on 'ownership' certainly brings up ethical and legal dilemmas. If the council is meant to represent the public, shouldn't there be some level of public discussion regarding such an important discovery? The comparison to pet ownership is striking—responsibility doesn't just disappear when something is thrown away, and it complicates the straightforward nature of the ownership argument.

[Jet Cash]

With all that money involved, he ought to have done a deal with the council rather than going to court. If he had offered to split the proceeds with the council, I bet they would have taken him up on the offer. He should have done that right at the beginning. I expect the drive has been recycled into a Chinese rocket by now.

[bitzizzix]

It's very unfortunate! I can somewhat relate to this situation because I too have lost around 350k Dogecoin in a scam back in 2019. It didn't bother me much at that time because the value was negligible that time. But now it's really significant as per my local currency.

According to UK law, once something is dumped in the landfill, it becomes the property of the government. So even if the hard drive is found and the data is recoverable, James can't claim it. The government will take it all. End of story. Period.

This is certainly very unfortunate and for anyone who has ever experienced a loss due to a Bitcoin error or other cryptocurrency, it is certainly very unfortunate when compared to the current situation, and I am sure seeing the vast difference between then and now makes us fantasize or try things that will most likely never come back.

And I think almost all the large areas of land that are used as landfills are owned by the government, because no one wants their land to be used as a landfill. So the government has the right to take back the waste that is taken by other people, no matter how small it is, especially if the waste is valuable or has a high price.