You know, there’s a story that has been keeping the crypto community up at night for many years. James Howell is the guy who accidentally threw away a hard drive holding 8,000 bitcoins, and now those coins are worth around $787 million. But here’s what’s interesting—his ex-girlfriend only recently decided to share her version of events.

Halfina Eddie-Evans went on the media and literally said: yes, I threw the disk onto the dump. But there’s a twist—according to her, Howell himself asked her to do it. Can you imagine? She claims she had no idea that there was a fortune inside that trash bag. She says she was simply helping her boyfriend get rid of old things back in 2013.

Now the funniest part, she says, is that she’s tired of all this circus. She doesn’t want a penny of that money—she’s just sick of being a target for criticism on the internet. “Maybe if he finds that disk, he’ll finally shut up about it”—that’s roughly her position. Their relationship has long since fallen apart, they have children, but this bitcoin story has literally poisoned their lives.

The story itself goes back to 2009, when Howell was just experimenting with mining. It was a hobby—nothing serious. Then his laptop overheated, he spilled lemonade on it, and the hard drive got damaged. The wallet’s private key remained on that drive, and he couldn’t move it to a new computer due to compatibility issues. The disk was simply thrown away.

Let’s move to the present. Bitcoin is trading at about 80K now, and the value of Howell’s lost stash is simply astronomical. For several years now, he has been waging a legal battle with the Newport City Council, demanding permission to excavate the dump. The council keeps refusing, citing environmental risks and logistical difficulties. More than 1.4 million tons of garbage are at the dump, and although Howell claims he narrowed the search down to 100 thousand tons, the authorities remain unmoved.

Last month, the case escalated. Howell filed a lawsuit for $620 million, accusing the council of withholding his property. The first hearing is due to take place on December 3, and the council plans to seek dismissal of the lawsuit. Howell, meanwhile, insists it’s his property and that he has the right to get it back.

But what really touches in this story are Eddie-Evans’ words that Howell’s obsession with that disk destroyed his mental health. She believes the council should simply allow him to dig so he can move on with his life. For her, it’s not so much about money as it is about a person’s mental well-being.

Howell even promised to use part of the recovered fortune to develop Newport—saying that 10 percent would go toward transforming the city. But Eddie-Evans is skeptical about that. She just wants this whole story to finally end. “I’m tired of hearing about it,” is her final word on the matter.