I am Vivian, I am 24-year-old and I come from Germany, and this is my story in regards to

what happened at Dino M.s.

During the summer break of 2013, my friend Emma and I decided to do a two
month backpacking trip through Europe. Emma is from Canada, we met each other in
Florida while we were both working on a one year contract with Disney World for their
International Cultural Representative Program.
We had heard about Couchsurfing due to friends who did it before and had good
experiences. We never have done it before but we liked the idea of getting in touch with
locals from all the different countries who like to show us around and spent some with us.
We love getting to know new cultures and open-minded international people.
After a month of scanning the website with a profile I had shared with Emma, started
looking for people who could host us from the platform.
We travelled Europe (London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Marseille, Nice, St.Tropez,
Monaco, Florence, Venice, Pisa, Rom, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Copenhagen,
Stockholm, Oslo, Amersterdam, Mnchen (Oktoberfest) and were hosted by different hosts
found on Couchsurfing, with "Leonardo M." being our seventh. His couchsurfing profile
seemed reputable, he hosted many guests, probably like 60, over a year; but he used the
old profile of his old girlfriend (thats what we figured out by looking through very old
comments so obviously he took some good comments over from her profile)
He did not have a negative comment on at that time, he had some pictures and he asked
us to add him on Facebook.
I felt his a weird vibe when I looked at his pictures, but as nobody elses was going to host
us and his profile seemed very reputable we decided to stay with him.
We arrived in the afternoon of August 25th 2013 in Padovas train station. Leonardo had to
work so we waited for him at the San Carlo stop in front of the Bingo. Once there, we
called him with my phone, but he said he was very busy at work, had to arrest people and
could not talk. But he added he would try to hurry to pick us up. After waiting for at least
over an hour at the stop, it started to rain outside and we decided to take the tram back to
the McDonalds down the street- close to the Padova train station. We ate food
and waited for about another two hours. It was a very bad thunderstorm and
we started getting a little nervous about our plans to stay with him. At this point, we still
received no call from him since our brief cell phone conversation at the Bingo stop- and
just decided to wait it out- by this time it was after dinner. Finally, we had a police
man in uniform approaching us inside of McDonalds. He said: "Couchsurfing girls?" and
both Emma and I where shocked and scared at first, but then we realised it was Leonardo.
and apologized.
He got us into his car, where to other couchsurfers were waiting, he was not talking a lot
nor properly introduce himself. I felt a little weird at the beginning and was just happy
that the two girls were with us.
These other two couchsurfers were two girls from Hong Kong, Chunhua and Yvonne.
To go home, he was speeding his car a lot and we were all quite scared. Even though he
was speeding by himself in his uniform and in his civil(!) car, he turned down the window at

a traffic light and shouted at another driver in a car next to us something in Italian
sounded like he was not following the rules we didnt know that the driver actually had
done wrong. I just had the feeling that Leonardo just wanted to show us his power
Once we were at his house he immediately seemed to relax. You could tell in
his posture, his face, and the way he talked to us. He seemed way more easy
going. He showed us our rooms and than he left us settling down while he would go and
Skype his girlfriend. She did not live in Italy, I remember seeing her briefly on Skype, she
looked Asian.
Leonardo offered Emma and I his bedroom with a nice big bed, and Chunhua and Yvonne
a spare bedroom and he was going to sleep in the third bedroom. I thought it was very
kind of him to give us his best room even though a couch or a mattress would have been
totally fine thats what we said to him but he insisted on letting us having his room. It was
just a little weird because ones bedroom is a very private thing.
After changing out of our wet clothes, Leonardo brought us to a very nice Pizzeria.
Leonardo said it was the best pizza place in town and thats original Napoletana pizza
were Pizza originally comes from. He seemed to know the people working there I guess.
Like he would go there often.
We had good food and nice chat. He mentioned that he used to have a different
Couchsurfing profile he shared with his ex girlfriend, and there he said he had many
contacts and positive feedbacks but as they broke up he had to create one.
After a few drinks he started saying lots of compliments to all of us. He said he liked
Emmas eyes I thought he might have a thing for Asian people because Emma is half
Philippine and the other girls Chinese. Since we were using Emmas profile I thought that
might be the reason why he wanted to host us That night I had my hair up next
morning I had it down and he said he really would like it and I look beautiful.
I recall he had coloured/fake lenses. They were this light brown/grey colour with little dash
lines in them. This was pretty weird.
At one point Emma and I went to the washroom together, we were laughing insanely about
his compliments to us. Emma said to watch out he doesnt pull a move on any of us and
we told each other he kind of creepy, but continued to laugh because we said he was just
"super nice/friendly" and was giving us the Italian hospitality culture. He ended up paying
for the whole bill. We were all shocked and insisted it was too much and that we wanted to
pay. However, he wouldn't let us pay. We thanked him tremendously for such generosity.
Before we left he insisted that we had to try another typical Italian shot! We said no but he
already had ordered it to the door and already had paid for it since we didnt wanted to
be rude, we drank it. During the dinner he already had ordered Aperol Spritz and wine
both typical Italian of course which we had to try since we are in Italy
We got into the car thinking we were going back to his house, but instead we stopped at
the back of some white building, there were wired gates around it. He went in and came
out. After that he drove and stopped in front of a bar. We asked what was going on and
Leonardo replied we can't end the night now. We all said we were tired and wanted to
go home, but he ignored us and just walked the bar. We followed him in, it was a small
karaoke bar, full of people, he got us drinks. Emma and I were looking at each other, we

were not at ease. Leonardo was getting drunk, and Chunhua and Yvonne where getting
drunk too. He started to touch them on their shoulders etc.
When Leonardo was distracted Emma and I dumped our drinks into a bunch of napkins on
the floor.
He drove home very fast. We were a little scared and ask him if he could slow down a
little.
Once we were in his apartment we said right away we all needed to go to bed. We said
goodnight and whispered to Chunhua and Yvonne to be careful and let us know about
anything. And we all went to sleep.
On the next morning, 26 August, the four of us were home alone as Leonardo had to work
in the morning. We went into the living room and talked about what happened the night
before, as we were all scared.
At one point Emma noticed there was a camera on his book shelf.
It was very creepy and we didnt know what this was all about we were scared. At the
same time a little of me thought he would maybe have the cameras for safety reasonsto
be more on the point I would say I hoped so.
We all left the house after and went to Venice where we discussed what to do but in the
end we had no other place to stay for one more night plus we though he is a policeman
and it is going to be fine. We decided we would go back to his home very late since he
was supposed to be working an over night shift and had to start work at 11 pm or 12
midnight that day.
That day we got back late at Leonardos. We could not find our way so he came to pick us
up. His directions he gave us seemed to be wrong thats when we realised that he was
always driving weird rounds on his way back home like he didnt want us to know were
he lives. Or being able to describe were he lives. He was pretty mad at us. We felt really
sorry.
Once we arrived into his flat he settled down and relaxed. Our plan was to cook for him as
a thankyou/return for being our Couchsurfer and having an excuse not to go out again
for dinner and drinks. But He had already cooked pasta with a tomato sauce.
We all sat in the kitchen to eat. Thats when he brought out sparkling wine in its original
glass bottle. We all immediately said we did not want to drink much, and he
listened, I poured one smaller glass each of this sparkling wine.
After that he said he really just wanted us to try this other wine he has. He
told us that it was a special wine from Italy and I think he said you can only
get it from a certain area in Italy, but I am not positive. He then told us that it
is very strong dessert wine. We only had one small glass of this as well. I did not even
drink that whole tiny glass, just nipped a little on it. So now Emma and the Hong Kong girls
were
at two glasses of alcohol, while eating.
After only 2 small sips of the wine I felt sleepy. I was very sleepy and had the feeling that
my left body sight was getting very heavy and it is pulling me to the left sight.
All of us were ready for bed. We said that we would go to bed and he insisted on going to

the living room for a small chat before going to bed. We agreed and already went to the
living room while he did the dishes. I whispered to Emma (so he couldnt hear) that
something is wrong and that I really dont feel that good, by then I had troubles to walk
right and I felt a little dizzy. While I said that to Emma I realised that I couldnt even talk
properly anymore my tongue was very heavy and I babbled a little. So all of us went to
the bedroom where Emma and stayed. And there we sat all on our bed and Emma and I
said to the other girls that they should stay in our room that we would have a bad feeling
letting them alone since the night before he came already a little drunk into the room of
the too Hong Kong girls and they had to bring him back to his room. But as we were
chatting about that, a few seconds later we all passed out.
On the next day, 27 August, I woke up and I didnt know what had happened. I realised
Leonardo was right behind me. But I had no feelings. Not even scared. I was not fussed
about anything. Which was obviously weird, usually I would have freaked out probably
the after effects of the sweet dessert wine. Emma was next to me, Leonardo was
sleeping without a shirt on just behind me. Then I passed out again.
Next time I woke up I was more my self again but I was super scared that he might had
touched me during the time I was knocked outthat still freaks me out because I just don't
know what happened and he layed behind me! and I still wonder why - I was the only non
Asian looking person and I was convinced he had a crush of Asian looking girlsI just felt
abused.

At that point Emma and I took secretly a picture of his ID which was lying on the commode
in the sleeping room, just to have something in our hands as a proof with whom we had to
deal.even though we knew that this might could be a fake.
We packed and got ready- we just wanted to leaveThats when I saw his gun which
freaked me out.
We were too scared to say something to him about the night before He even forced us
to write something nice into his guest book and to take a nice picture with him. We did so
because we were scared knowing he had a gun and was obviously a sick man. After that
he drove us to the train station and we just wanted to take the next train out of Padova, out
of Italy, far away from that guy. We very shocked and paralysed.
Austria was the first country we went to after Italy. We tried and report to police ther but
they did not take us seriously and they said we were not Austrian citizens and they could
do nothing.
I decided not to file a denounce when I got back to Germany because I was scared my
parents would figure something out. Still me and I Emma were the first girls who put a
negative comment on Leonardos profile with a short version of what happened. We just
wanted to warn all others couch surfers. We also said to the two Hong Kong girls to do the
same thing. After that Leonardo wrote us a threat/fulmination, that we would get in trouble ,
that he is a police officer and that he has connections so we wont be able to come back to
Italy anymore etc. if we are not deleting our comment. After that a lot of other girls wrote
us on couch surfing asking more questions and admitting that something similar happened
to them.
Now, after being in contact with the other girls and lawyers, I have decided to denounce

because I just feel like I have totwo many months passed and for too long I felt a gap in
me.