There is no guarantee the hard drive is even in this landfill. Maybe someone swiped it out of his trash, maybe someone grabbed it out of the truck, maybe someone found it in the landfill a decade ago and took it home. The possibilities are endless, move on dude.
I have 100BTC on a hard drive that I then formatted (back in 2010-ish), it sucks but you move on.
Lastly, if not for throwing away the hard drive this guy would probably have a couple hundred dollars, maybe a couple thousand (from having sold it earlier). Instead he has a mythical $800M that will never materialize. I can't believe someone is actually that stupid so I assume this is a play for media attention, to what end I do not know (or care).
What's more remarkable, is that the user created an account just to post this. Behavior like this on the internet always confuses me.
RE: Empathy. I've known a few people who's digital footprints look like this in real life. It's usually not empathy that's the issue (well, _primary_ issue). There's usually a cluster of things that have gone sideways that leads someone to becoming the sort of person who does this sort of thing.
What are the odds a HDD would be still be readable after being left outdoors for 12 years?