It's Really Annoying When You Drop A Tenner Isn't It?

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgr0dyy152jo

spare a thought for this guy......

[ToraToraTora]

//Last month, he announced that he was suing Newport City Council for £495,314,800 in damages.

“They [the council] are currently, in my opinion, withholding my property without my consent and they’re not allowing me to search for it,” he said.// - Can you claim ownership of something you have thrown away? Legal beagle.....?

[youngmafbog]

Well if someone is stupid enough to do that - and have no backup they deserve everything they get.

Blokes a numbskull.

[Tilly2]

Serves him right for being so dozy!

[sandyRoe]

Can this be true?  If someone had the code to a fortune stored on a hard drive you'd think they'd store it in a fireproof safe.

[ToraToraTora]

Yes the guy is clearly a plonker.

[Old_Geezer]

Having binned it surely it is no longer his property ?

[Old_Geezer]

Ah I see that's already been mentioned.

[Ken4155]

I'm surprised the entire population of Newport haven't descended upon the site, spades in hand, gas masks on and a Jack Russell or 3 to deal with any troublesome rats.

[New Judge]

I think Mr Howells is out of luck for two reasons:

Firstly, I imagine there are a number of reasons why access to the site cannot be granted. H&S and environmental legislation immediately springs to mind.

Secondly, even if he did find the hard drive I doubt it would be of any use. Apart from being crushed initially by the rubbish truck and then whilst in the landfill, it has apparently been there for over ten years, so I doubt anything on it will be recoverable.

There is a practical point. Mr Howells says he has he has narrowed down the area in the tip where he believes the HD may be to one containing “only” 100,000 tons. Of course he might find it on the first day or he might not find it until the last. But, assuming he could sort through ten tons of material each day (which is most unlikely) and he worked five days a week, it would take him 40 years to search through the lot.

“They [the council] are currently, in my opinion, withholding my property without my consent”

I think Mr Howells has the wrong opinion. I believe he gave his consent for the council to take his property as soon as he put it out for collection. I also believe that as soon as they took possession of it, it was no longer his and he has no right to demand its return.

His argument is absurd. If he is correct it means that anybody who believes they have mistakenly thrown something away can demand the council gives them access to the rubbish dump so that they can scramble about looking for it.

[Tilly2]

Why has it taken ten years to try to begin to find it?

[Clone]

I think it is a lie that he can't let go of.

[douglas9401]

James Howells aka Walter Mitty.

Now I know next to nothing about digital pretendy money but surely an expert would have transfered any data to the new system before hoying a king's ransom to the back of a drawer.