Burglars stole and destroyed everything we have

UPDATE 13 Sept 2020:

We have started to receive the donations to our account with the help of our friend, Thomas Stillwell. He has patiently and diligently looked for a way to wire the funds to us until last week, when the transfer finally came through. We are just waiting on the rest of the donations to arrive to our account by the end of the month.

Once again, thank you so much for the support. We are eternally grateful!

We will be closing this campaign as we have already surpassed our goal and we have more than enough to start afresh.

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UPDATE 20 Aug 2020:

Thank you to those who have donated and provided support to us via other means! We are still figuring out how to access our funds as GoFundMe does not operate in Mexico or in the Philippines. Some friends have offered to help, for which we are grateful.

We have asked our friend, Thomas Stillwell, to be part of our campaign so that he can withdraw on our behalf the monies raised via this campaign. He will then wire the donations to our personal account when GoFundMe has verified him and the funds have cleared.

We appreciate your patience as we work out the details. We will keep you posted of any developments.

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We are Sten from Sweden and Tanya from the Philippines.

Last week, all of our possessions were burglarized and destroyed at our home in Mexico. Even our sweet cat Tufti disappeared (she was thankfully found on August 12th). Because of the pandemic, we are trapped away from our home at the moment, and struggling to rebuild our lives and recuperate our losses. Please help us in anyway you can. And read on for the full backstory of the loss we have suffered.  

A year after we got married in the Philippines 13 years ago, we decided to establish our home in Baja California Sur, where Sten works as a dive guide. He goes to remote islands to guide divers who want to encounter sharks, dolphins, and giant mantas. Tanya switched careers when she moved to Mexico, and she is now working in the ecotourism industry. We came to Baja with very little, but we have managed to carve out a living by working hard. Mexico had become our base, but we also work in different places in the Americas. We were doing fine, hoping to earn enough money to be able to buy a piece of land and build our own home one day. Over the years, Sten has gathered a lot of tools in order to work independently on future projects.


We suffered a setback in 2019, when Sten’s sciatica returned. Due to the physical demands of his work, he had to take a break and get treatment. Tanya’s salary wasn’t so high, but we were fine. Sten went back to work as soon as his back felt better. We even had an opportunity to work together at a dive resort overseas. Unfortunately, the resort canceled the Spring season due to CoVid-19 and we managed to get back to Mexico just days before they canceled international flights. We consoled ourselves with the thought that we could still work in Mexico, but a few days later things shut down at home as well. In the travel industry, we don’t earn money when we don’t work, so things became tougher for us. We had to cut our budget and live cheap.


When the quarantine lifted in Mexico, we traveled to the Philippines to see Tanya’s family, whom we haven’t seen in 5 years. As we had already bought non-refundable tickets before the pandemic started and we didn’t have any work at the time, we left our house with the caretaker, who would come by every few days to feed and check on our cats.

A few days after we arrived in Manila, the government decided to impose stricter quarantine measures, so we had to stay in our apartment and wait to see family. Two more days later we got a call from our landlady, who informed us that our house had been burglarized. Looking at the photos that our friend sent us, we saw that everything we had worked for in the last 13 years was gone−all tools, all gear, our small valuables and mementos from our home countries that have no value to them, but only to us. They found our cash savings of $6,000 that were so well-hidden, and they took the motorbike that Sten used daily when he was at home. The house was trashed and Tufti, one of our dear cats, was gone (she was thankfully found on August 12th).


We were already devastated from that loss, when two days later they broke in again and destroyed our things like we had wronged someone. We haven’t been in conflict with anyone, nor have we done anyone harm. We lost everything we had, including the money. We can’t go back home right now as we are still in lockdown and international flights are limited.

So here we are, stripped of all our belongings, waiting to return to a trashed house that no insurance in Mexico will cover, and with no work. The plan is for Sten to go back to Mexico, while Tanya stays in the Philippines. We don’t know if it’s safe to stay in our house anymore as it seems that someone is angry at us. We will be living separately until we can determine what to do. We are starting all over again, but not only that; we are emotionally raped and gutted, and still in search of work.

Please help us to build our lives again, recuperate some of our losses. We are estimating that we need to raise approximately $15,000 USD. To rehabilitate our savings of $6,000, and buy back all the furnishings, clothing, belongings, and possessions that were stolen or destroyed. We are so grateful for anything you can offer us. Every little bit helps. Thank you!

Warmest regards,
Sten and Tanya