LAD Bags Himself £10,000 After Spotting Abandoned House While In Traffic Jam

We've all been in traffic jams, and we've all fucking hated them. The person in front, through no fault of their own, becomes someone you can't stand, as does the person behind you, with their stupid face in your rear view mirror.

It'd be made pretty sweet though, if you could make a bit of money while stuck in one. Maybe even around £10,000. Would do nicely that, wouldn't it? Well that's what happened to Paul Wood, known as one half of Woody & Kleiny, who post prank videos on social media.

Credit: YouSpotProperty

Attempting to free himself of the displeasure of being stuck in traffic he took an alternative route, coming across an abandoned house which he took a picture of.

He snapped it after remembering a page he'd seen on Facebook, which offers prizes for spotting houses left derelict.

"I was stuck in the worst ever traffic jam near Kilburn so decided to take a narrow side street, which left me gridlocked for about 25 minutes," he said.

"Next to me, was a house which looked in a right state among many grand properties, and it made no sense.

"I took a snap of it, took note of the address, and thought it would be a bit of fun when I uploaded it to YouSpotProperty.com - a company I had seen in my Facebook stream for having rescued a number of houses in North London."

Credit: YouSpotProperty

You Spot Property works by asking people to send images and the address of abandoned houses or flats, and if you're the first to report that specific property, and it meets YouSpotProperty's criteria, you can choose between a £20 Amazon or M&S e-voucher.

However, if the company goes on to buy the property, the sender will receive one percent of the purchase price.

The company went on to buy the West Hampstead property for £1,000,000 entitling him the £10,000.

"I was chuffed enough with the £20 voucher and never expected I'd actually get their one percent payout but I did," Woody said.

In the three years YouSpotProperty has been going it has reportedly given out about 2,885 vouchers, and around 49 people have received the one percent payout.

Credit: YouSpotProperty

Nick Kalms, founder of YouSpotProperty.com, commented: "The issue of empty homes cannot be dealt with through one solution alone as there are numerous reasons why they become empty when housing and temporary accommodation is an ever-growing social issue.

"Since 2014, we've built up a case load of 3,500 known long term empty and derelict properties, and the overriding reason remains a deadlock around probate. Families need greater assistance in resolving probates involving property which can otherwise be used to provide valuable housing.

"Although the Government has made bold housebuilding pledges it will take years to see developments spring into action.

"Tackling empty homes should be an ongoing priority for all councils who themselves are guilty of holding large numbers of empty properties in their own hands."

Credit: YouSpotProperty

Woody was also the benefactor of more generosity from the company after they donated a further £1,000 to Woody's Wanders FC (WWFC) the not-for-profit football club, part of Woody's Sports Academy.

"My further thanks to Ben and Nick for their further support to my community football club," Woody added.

Off to find me an abandoned house, LADs.

Topics: UK News, Traffic, House

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.