Welsh IT worker James Howells accidentally throws away a hard drive containing the private keys to 8,000 BTC while cleaning out his office. The drive ended up in the Newport city landfill in Wales. By the time Howells realized his mistake, the bitcoin was worth millions and the city council refused to let him excavate the site, citing environmental regulations. Howells has spent years proposing increasingly elaborate recovery plans involving AI-powered robotic sorting systems, but as of 2025 the drive remains buried. The lost fortune grew to be worth over half a billion dollars.
BBC: Man's Bitcoin Fortune in Landfill