Man who waited in line to take photo with Mounties receives framed portrait

Sukhdev Singh Brar, the man who waited nearly half an hour in line for the opportunity to stand next to two RCMP officers, has received an official copy of a photo that became part of a viral social media campaign.

Brar had stood in line for the photo at the Vaisakhi parade in Surrey, B.C. About half a million people marched through the city for the festivities, and a line of people waiting to take a photo with two RCMP officers in their red serges grew long. 

When Brar got to the front, Amandeep Takhar, who was volunteering at the booth, noticed the elderly man did not have a camera with him.

But Brar, then unidentified, told Takhar that he just wanted "the honour of standing alongside the Surrey RCMP members."

Takhar took the photo and later tweeted it out asking for help finding the man to give him the photo. It was retweeted hundreds of times as people tried to identify the mystery man.

Sara Thind, Brar's daughter, saw the viral post on her Facebook page. 

"We had no idea that it had gone so viral and my sister told me about it and you know I looked at the tweets and we told him, and he was so excited," Thind said.

Brar, 79, along with his family, got to tour a Surrey RCMP detachment and officially receive a framed copy of his portrait.

Thind said her father's desire to stand with the red-serge adorned officers is connected to his family.

"All of his brothers are in the army or the air force so he's always had this respect for uniform," she said.

"He's always wanted to become a cop but never really had a chance to because of the language barrier and education and so forth."

Brar wore an ear-to-ear smile when presented with his portrait.

"I like it very much," he said, beaming. "I will keep it at home."