A Tri-City realtor is being recognized for her help in locating a missing senior.
Risa Bassetto was on her way home from showing a listing in Vancouver last week but opted to take Brunette Avenue home to Coquitlam, instead of Mariner Way, because of construction on her usual route. That's when something caught her eye.
"Right across from Mackin Park, I saw this senior… and it was a gut instinct," Bassetto told The Tri-City News. "My instinct at that time, even though I was in a rush to get home, was to turn around and see if this person needed help."
But in the split-second juggling of gauging traffic, determining where to turn around and whether to just continue on her way home, Bassetto opted to continue on and get dinner started.
Her initial instinct would prove true, however, when Bassetto scrolled through her email and saw one of the missing person fan-outs she and other realtors get about once a month through the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV). This particular email was for a missing person who lives in New Westminster but was last seen on Ash Street in Vancouver, Bassetto said.
"It didn't really mean anything to me but I clicked on the photo and looked at the person, and it looked like the person I'd seen yesterday where my gut was telling me something was wrong."
She phoned Vancouver Police Department and reported her possible sighting, and the following day, two detectives asked Bassetto to take them to the spot where she had seen the senior — it happened to be an area the senior was known to frequent.
"I got an email in the morning saying the person was found, cold and tired, and is now at home getting the help they need," Bassetto said. "I think the big story here is to listen to your gut instinct. I kick myself — if something bad had happened, I would have felt just awful."
"Risa was instrumental in finding this elderly person," VPD Det. Const. Raymond Payette said in a release. "She and the Realty Watch program allowed us to find this senior safe."
Realty Watch is a partnership between local police departments, the RCMP and more than 14,000 realtors across the Lower Mainland. The fan-outs are sent to realtors for missing children (aged 16 and under), seniors and vulnerable, at-risk adults. The program helped locate an elderly woman in White Rock in 2009 and a missing teenager in 2006 in Langley.
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