About 32 years ago, a young Burnaby resident had an encounter with a Mountie that changed her life forever.
Sandy Labinsky was about 10 or 11 years old when she was followed home by a suspicious man in a car. He first caught her eye when he slowed down to pass her as she walked south on Buller Avenue. When he circled the block to pass her a second time, she knew something was wrong. She headed down the alley between Ewart and Carson streets, but the driver followed, blocking the gate to her backyard. So Labinsky ran for it. She managed to slip by the car, get through the gate into her backyard and up the back steps into her home.
Labinsky told her mother what happened, and together they called the Burnaby RCMP.
More than three decades later, Labinsky can still picture the officer who arrived on her doorstep that afternoon. He was tall, lean but strong and “utterly professional in every manner.” He spoke to her like an adult, rather than a child he had to tolerate. He asked questions to test her observation skills, and he was impressed when she nearly guessed his age – 29.
“It seemed like he really cared to actually talk to me, like I was capable of answering his questions, which I really appreciated,” Labinsky said. “It was just one of those encounters that you just think, ‘Well that’s a really cool thing being a police officer.’”
Today, Labinsky is a police sergeant for the City of Henderson Police Department in Nevada, a city slightly larger than Burnaby with a population of more than 270,000. She has been with the department for about 14 years.
Every now and then, the memory of the kind Mountie pops into Labinsky’s head. She said she has thought of trying to find him before, but it wasn’t until a discussion about influential people at a recent leadership course that she finally decided to try and track down the officer who had made such an impact on her life and career path.
So, Labinsky sent a letter to the Burnaby RCMP explaining the incident in 1983/84 and the way in which it helped steer her towards a career in policing.
“I don’t sit still well, so to have a job where it’s continuously different all the time and you never know what your day is going to be like, that is my favourite aspect of (policing),” Labinsky told the NOW.
When Labinsky was working as a training officer in Henderson, she would often share her story about the Burnaby Mountie. She would tell the recruits about his professionalism and overall presence that left her in awe.
“He just had this physical presence that was just different than a regular person. When we talk about officers having command presence or physical presence, he definitely had that going on, and it might have been a little bit the fact that I was 10 or 11 years old, but he was very, very impressive to me,” she said.
While Labinsky admits it’s unlikely the officer remembers her, she still wants to track him down if only to say thank you.
“I thought it would be cool just for him to know that that was something that I definitely remembered and it made a huge impression on me,” she said.
Labinsky suspects the officer is in his early 60s now, possibly retired, but because she doesn’t have a name, it’s difficult for even the Burnaby RCMP to speculate on who he could be or if he even retired from the Burnaby RCMP or was transferred to another RCMP detachment.
Whether she finds the Mountie or not, Labinsky was glad she finally reached out to the Burnaby RCMP.
“Even if he can’t be found, I thought this was a nice reminder for all the people there that what you do is important, and every time you’re talking to somebody it could be something that has a long reaching effect,” she added.
Anyone with questions or who may have information about the officer is asked to contact Staff Sgt. John Buis at the Burnaby RCMP at 604-2947697 or by email to [email protected].
