In the British town of Market Harborough, teacher Ellie Hart accidentally threw away a flash drive that contained access to her cryptocurrency wallet with over $3.8 million in Bitcoin. She described this situation as “the worst mistake of her life.”
This is reported by Finway
Ellie decided to tidy up her drawers and without a second thought disposed of the flash drive along with old documents, batteries, and cables, thinking it was one of her work USB drives. However, this device actually contained access to her partner Tom’s cryptocurrency wallet, who had purchased Bitcoin back in 2013.
When Tom noticed the flash drive was missing, he asked Ellie if she had seen the small black USB stick he used to store the Bitcoin.
“I froze. I realized instantly. My heart just sank. I told him, ‘I think I threw it away.’ A wave of panic washed over me.”
The couple even checked the discarded trash, opening bags in hopes of finding the flash drive, but to no avail. Ellie Hart later referred to this incident as “the worst mistake of her life.”
This case drew parallels to another incident where crypto investor James Howells lost a hard drive with 8000 BTC at a city landfill. Recently, he lost a case in a British court regarding permission to search for the hard drive with the Bitcoin at the dump.