James Howells of Newport made waves four years ago when the story of his missing hard drive that contained 7,500 bitcoins (BTC) was publicized.

Howells was an early Bitcoiner who mined 7,500 bitcoins and placed it in a hard drive.

During that time, bitcoin was easily mineable and barely worth much.

According to a report, Howell mined them for over a week and stopped when his girlfriend complained of the laptop burning up.

Then in 2010, he inadvertently spilled lemonade on his Dell laptop, so he dismantled it for parts.

The hard drive in which the bitcoins were in were kept in a drawer where it stayed for three years.

When clearing out his old IT equipment, he didn’t remember the hard drive had virtual currency in it, so he just threw it away.

When he realized what he had done, he searched high and low for it but was unsuccessful.

At the time he threw them out, the 7,500 BTC was worth over $600,000.

Then, at the time Howells’ story broke, it was worth over $5 million.

Today, with the end of 2017 in sight and bitcoin approaching $10,000 levels, that hard drive is now worth $72 million.

And as far as everybody knows, that hard drive is still out there, perhaps waiting to be found.

However, a Newport spokesperson has stressed that treasure hunters would not be allowed entry into the landfill.

For Howells, he has become resigned to the possibility that he might never find that hard drive again.

“I’m at the point where it’s either laugh about it or cry about it.

“Why aren’t I out there with a shovel now?

“I think I’m just resigned to never being able to find it,” Howells was quoted as saying.