Photo recall: Warm fuzzies years on

Photo / Emma Land

In awe but no fear of much-loved community cop.

Although her memory of the event is hazy, the photo of 3-year-old Mandy Gundersen with a police officer has been a regular fixture throughout her 33 years.

"It was my one moment of fame on the front of the paper."

The photo also graced the front of her 21st birthday invitations. "It was done up like a magazine cover with that picture on it."

The infamous photo, captured in 1983, shows Gundersen with Senior Constable Dick Ellis following the opening of the Pakuranga Police community liaison office.

Gundersen's mother Helen Perry recalls the moment being snapped by NZ Herald photographer John Sefton. "I still have the original photo and newspaper clipping, which has particular sentimental value as I had previously worked with John and been on the staff for 11 years. The photo was seen by friends as a real winner."

Perry, now editor of EastLife magazine, says time has "whisked by" but she remembers Ellis with great fondness.

"Dick Ellis was the country's first community police constable and was on the beat more or less for the first time. He was extremely popular with the locals.

"Mandy was a little in awe of him but in no way afraid of this rather huge man," she laughs.

Gundersen still lives in Auckland, now with her husband, Sean, and two sons - Blake, 4, and Nathan, almost 18 months. "But I still look pretty similar to the kid in the photo."