ouch. IT worker throws out hard drive, loses $7.5M bitcoin fortune. [View all]

[magical thyme]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/28/21654552-it-worker-throws-out-hard-drive-loses-75-million-bitcoin-fortune

LONDON -- An IT worker threw out a computer hard drive without realizing it contained $7.5 million worth of the digital currency Bitcoin.

The device is now buried somewhere in a vast landfill site near the home of owner James Howells -- who only realized his mistake when it was too late.

"It was just after the financial crash and when I found out about Bitcoin it seemed to me to be the perfect alternative," he said. "I knew it was going to be huge."

The 28-year-old "mined" the currency by running a computer program on his Dell laptop for almost a week, eventually having to turn it off because his girlfriend complained the fans in the machine were getting too hot and noisy at night.