Quote :

"Because making your visitor the first Couchsurfing casualty is so much more preferable over having something stolen. Which they could probably do in the middle of the night anyway. My mind boggles over what possible logic could make sense of that."

wait wait wait

you invite a stranger into your house from a website

they attempt to steal something from you

so you shoot them

and you don't see the logic?

...

In other words, You would rather have your shit stolen than have to shoot someone? Because I frankly don't see the logic in THAT.

7/5/2011 11:01:40 AM

According to the law, wouldn't the person have to be forcefully making their way into your home and presenting a clear and present physical danger to yourself or others in your house to legally shoot them. If you invite them into your home and they attempt to steal something from you, it seems the most you could legally do is jump them, take your shit back, and call the cops.

[Edited on July 5, 2011 at 11:08 AM. Reason : s]

7/5/2011 11:07:58 AM

Absolutely.

Although reasonable force is fine, deadly force is not authorized legally for the defense of property.


That said, we're not talking about the letter of the law here. We're talking about drawing a logical inference. Big difference.

7/5/2011 11:50:47 AM

Quote :

"In other words, You would rather have your shit stolen than have to shoot someone?"

Yes.

7/5/2011 12:03:27 PM

Quote :

"it seems the most you could legally do is jump them, take your shit back, and call the cops."

I feel embarrassed for having to state this at all.

Legally, as well as morally, in any situation where there is no violence directed to another person you should really not get violent yourself. I don't care if they are smashing and having sex with your $8000 flat screen TV while their friends are running out the door with your diamond collection. The cost-benefit of hitting and restraining them is not going to work out.

But that's not using Texas logic. And I'm the liberal scum anyway.

[Edited on July 5, 2011 at 12:46 PM. Reason : ]

7/5/2011 12:45:38 PM

I'm pretty sure legally you can attempt to restrain the individual until the police show up, even if it means using some, though not excessive, physical force. I'm neither or lawyer or a cop so I could be completely wrong.

7/5/2011 12:57:53 PM

Quote :

"In other words, You would rather have your shit stolen than have to shoot someone?"

um, yes.

7/5/2011 1:00:12 PM

^^ I think there's no doubt that this is legal in some cases in some states. Would it even apply to someone you invited over, or is this just the "castle" doctrine that lets you presume intent to harm by someone forcibly entering your home? Even in the most optimistic legal opinion, the risk-benefit of using force in that case would be absolutely terrible. I don't know about you, but the total value of basically every movable object in my place is worth considerably less to me than the cost of a few months in jail.

7/5/2011 1:09:10 PM

I wouldn't think castle doctrine applies in this situation since you invited the person into your home. So if you were dumb enough to shoot the person, you most certainly would find yourself in jail. If you forcibly detained the person in your home until police could arrive to arrest them, would you be committing any sort of crime? Or would it fall under something like citizens arrest?

7/5/2011 1:31:36 PM

My friend in Charlotte hosts people every few months. They've always been awesome and he loves showing them the city. We've even made friends that have come back and visited. It's a great way to meet people and network.

7/5/2011 1:38:58 PM

anyone try airbnb?

8/1/2011 12:57:38 PM

I have not tried airbnb yet.

They recently had someone's apartment get trashed, and it made a big news story. It did kind of highlight some of the problems with their business model. It seems soooo different from couch surfing, basically it seems like you don't get much information about the renter before you have to agree to rent to them over given dates, or at least that's the allegation of the victimized renter in the story. He had nothing more than a name and an email, which is like W T F?

That's like the total opposite of couch surfing, where you can see practically their life story and all their references before considering hosting them.

8/1/2011 1:15:36 PM

We recently hosted folks from Missoula, MT who were moving here for grad school at Duke, and were apartment hunting during the day. They were very reserved in opening up, and we couldn't figure out what they wanted to do. The dance party and the country night we took them too may have been a little too wild for their tastes (lots of girls were dancing with each other, this is a very lesbian-friendly town).

They also complained about the cost of going out in Durham - I was like "how cheap was it back in Missoula?" NC has one of the lowest costs of living anywhere in the country.

8/1/2011 1:18:11 PM

I have considered doing this, I love to travel and meeting interesting people is pretty high on my current list of interests. I've been aware of the site of course, but this thread prodded me into giving it a more serious look.

8/1/2011 3:02:11 PM

I'm just stuck on planning a trip right now. I'm all set to couch surf when I decide to go visit someplace new... whenever that'll be, lol

8/1/2011 4:07:52 PM

My sister is very into couch surfing. She stayed on couches all through Europe last summer and never had a bad incident.

This summer me and my sister went to central California for vacation. We stayed with a grad student in San Luis Obispo. Like other people in this thread, I was really nervous at first. But it turned out to be great! The free lodging is awesome and really makes the trip affordable. But the best part is that your host knows the area. He told us the best restaurants and bars, and a street festival that we wouldn't have known about. Our hosts's friend even drove us around wine country so we could drink as much as we wanted! That tour would've cost $150 if we paid for it.

It's reasonably safe because of the profiles where other people leave reviews. I wouldn't stay with someone unless they had positive reviews from other women.

[Edited on August 1, 2011 at 4:10 PM. Reason : eee]

8/1/2011 4:09:49 PM

anyone in NYC area who would let me and a friend crash at your place for sept 1-4?

8/1/2011 4:10:01 PM

This guy's actually doing it:

http://gizmodo.com/5827668/this-guy-is-actually-couch-surfing-on-water

8/4/2011 6:03:09 PM

I surfed some waves down in Argentina...four actually. I had a great time with it, but I did end up staying with a dude that wanted to jump my bones, which was just a weeeeee bit awkward.

8/4/2011 9:07:05 PM

I've been doing it

10/9/2011 7:55:06 PM

bump

10/4/2012 7:31:55 PM