Kaslo RCMP Cpl. Shaun Begg photo post explodes on Twitter
By Nelson Daily Staff
A Kaslo RCMP officer hit the big time on Twitter-verse with a photo of him playing shinny in red serge on a mountaintop ice rink.
“I’m actually very surprised . . . my thought was to take a photo of myself in serge with my personal camera for a personal screen saver, maybe a Christmas card,” Corporal Shaun Begg of the Kaslo RCMP detachment told CBC Vancouver.
“I had no idea it would hit the Internet and just explode.”
The photo was taken at 9,000 feet in the remote part of the Purcell Mountains.
Begg was there along with teammates on the Kaslo Afterburners rec team and friends to play a few games of pond-hockey shinny under sunny skies in the great outdoors of the BC Interior.
The group traveled to the mountain-top location via helicopter.
Following a few hours of high-octane shinny, Begg donned the Red Serge uniform after receiving supervisor approval.
“When I got to put the serge on it was a proud Canada moment,” Begg told CBC.
“The scarlet tunic has magic in it and the opposing team just came up and they wanted photos and stuff like that so it was kinda neat. So I kinda knew at that point that it might get out.”
The photo has been a Twitter sensation and has been re-tweeted almost 3,000 times by a variety of people, including the NHL.
“They obviously don’t know my skill set if they’re posting it on their Twitter page,” said Begg.
“Time kinda stood still while we were up there. It was a surreal experience. I’m still basking in the glory of what we’ve accomplished, not the photo but actually getting to play, in a . . . I mean how much more Canadian can that get . . . to play pond hockey at 9,000 feet.”
Begg told CBC he’s not sure how the photo will be used now, but he’s discussing it with the RCMP.
“It’s definitely going to be on my wall for sure in a nice frame . . . obviously a keepsake for life for me.”
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