Seems like projection on your part tbh.. who said he's obsessing over it?
Quite easy to cope with it - it wouldn't be worth so much if he hadn't forgotten about them or binned them! He'd have (99%+ chance) have sold them well before they'd have made him wealthy.
Loads of people had bitcoin in the early 2010s, they're mostly not all multimillionaires as a result of it - they'd have cashed out when they realised they could get a new PC or perhaps a bit later when it's suddenly worth a house deposit and they're still renting etc.. Most of them are not struggling to cope with that decision. Thus you get situations like that Mt. Gox hack actually ending up with the "victims" likely being better off than they'd have been otherwise when their crypto was returned as it prevented them from selling it sooner.
But this guy is a potential centimillionaire and so even if he only thinks there is a 1% chance (inc chance of getting council to approve him sifting through the rubbish) then it's worth pushing for it as that's still an EV of like 5 million or so. Plus he probably gets paid for some of the interviews/TV appearances etc.
Yeah, I'm not sure how much of that is journalists getting basic details wrong (common enough) or it being legally convenient for him - like if his gf binned them then it's still his property but if he willingly disposed of the HD then is there an issue re: legal ownership?
I guess the BTC is (probably) still arguably his even if he's given up ownership of the HD but it seems like an extra legal hassle it's not worth getting into ergo gf binning his property and wanting the return of his property is the more convenient positon to have.
