IT worker pleads for help to find device he threw away, which contains $381 million in bitcoin

A man who threw away an old hard drive now thinks it has a fortune on it – and is going to desperate measures to get it back.

A computer geek who threw away a hard drive containing $381 million in bitcoin has offered his local council a $95 million reward to find it.

James Howells, 35, stored 7500 bitcoins on his PC in 2009 when the digital currency was practically worthless, The Sun reports.

He later forgot about the stash and accidentally threw away the hard drive at a council landfill site in 2013 near his home in Newport, Wales.

The price of bitcoin has since soared and his ‘virtual wallet’ now amounts to around $381 million.

James Howells at the Newport Amenity Centre and landfill site where he thinks the hard drive is located. Picture: Shutterstock

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IT engineer Mr Howells has previously appealed to the council to search the city’s landfill site – but his pleas keep getting rejected.

He hoped a 25 per cent reward (roughly $95 million) would be an incentive, but killjoy council chiefs say they are bound by their licensing permit.

Mr Howells said: “I had two identical hard drives and I threw out the wrong one.

“I know I’m not the only person who has ever thrown out the wrong thing but it usually doesn’t cost people over £200 million [$A350 million].

He checked all his back-up files but could not locate the coins so went to his local landfill site. However, one glance at the size of the site and he knew it would be fruitless to search for the drive. Picture: Shutterstock

‘HAVE TO LAUGH’

“I have to laugh about it now because what else can I do?

There’s pot of gold for someone at the end of the rainbow – and that ends in the landfill site.”

The dad-of-two reckons the hard drive would still be in good enough working order to retrieve the bitcoin files – even after seven years.

He added: “There is no guarantee of that because of the environment it’s been in but there are things that give me confidence.

“The outside case might be rusted.

“But the inside disk, where the data is stored, there should be a good chance that it still works.

“I believe there still will be a chance.

“But the longer this drags on though, it’s less likely to be a possibility.

“There is going to be a point when the files on that machine are worth more than a billion pounds – the attitude of the council does not compute. It just does not make sense.”

But Newport Council have said rules prevent them from searching the landfill. Picture: Supplied

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Mr Howells has offered to give the council’s 25 per cent reward to a COVID-19 relief fund to help struggling families in Newport.

He claims he has received financial backing from a hedge fund to pay for the search so the council is not out of pocket.

But Newport Council insisted it was unable to help due to licensing rules and said there was no guarantee the hard drive was in the landfill.

A spokeswoman said: “Newport City Council has been contacted a number of times since 2014 about the possibility of retrieving a piece of IT hardware said to contain bitcoins.

“The first time was several months after Mr Howells first realised the hardware was missing.

“The cost of digging up the landfill, storing and treating the waste could run into millions of pounds – without any guarantee of either finding it or it still being in working order.

“The council has also told Mr Howells on a number of occasions that excavation is not possible under our licensing permit and excavation itself would have a huge environmental impact on the surrounding area.

“Even if we were able to agree to his request, there is the question of who would meet the cost if the hard drive was not found or was damaged to such an extent that the data could not be recovered.

“We have, therefore, been clear that we cannot assist him in this matter.”

It comes after a computer programmer has just two guesses left to figure out a password to a hard drive holding bitcoin worth $317 million.

This article originally appeared on the The Sun and was reproduced with permission