In 2009, James Howells started mining Bitcoin on his personal laptop when the cryptocurrency was still in its infancy. He managed to accumulate around 7,500 bitcoins, which, at the time, had little value. Like many others at the time, he didn't pay much attention to his investment.

However, the story takes a surprising turn in 2013. James accidentally spilled a soft drink on his old laptop, irreparably damaging it. He disassembled the laptop, removed the hard drive, and set it aside. At the time, the 7,500 bitcoins he had mined were on the hard drive, but James completely forgot about them.

By late 2013, when the price of Bitcoin began to rise rapidly, James remembered the hard drive and realized what he had lost. He attempted to locate the hard drive in a pile of electronic waste but to no avail. The drive was buried under tons of electronic trash in a landfill.

James Howells made headlines around the world when he revealed his unfortunate situation. He contacted local authorities and sought permission to dig at the landfill in search of his lost hard drive. However, he faced a slew of bureaucratic and legal obstacles, including concerns about environmental impact and site safety.

As of my last knowledge in January 2022, James Howells had not yet managed to recover his hard drive. The value of the 7,500 lost bitcoins had significantly increased over the years, making them a treasure buried beneath layers of garbage.

This story highlights the unique and sometimes harsh nature of the cryptocurrency world, where the lack of access to the private key can result in significant losses, even when the assets are literally buried in the ground.