Tougher Than the Rest : Security: Beefy men learn the bodyguard’s art from AAA Protection Services in Oxnard. Intimidation by appearance is a key technique.

Clerks gawked from store entrances. A pair of girls scooping ice cream craned their necks to get a better look at the procession.

And most shoppers simply stepped warily to the side as the group of burly men walked in a tight diamond formation through the mall, shielding the tall man in the center on all sides.

What the curious onlookers didn’t know was that the moving spectacle traipsing through the Esplanade was a class on how to be a bodyguard. And the would-be bodyguards had the situation completely under control.

Control of any situation is exactly what their instructor, David Himmelheber--who posed as the “client” during this exercise--teaches prospective employees during classes at AAA Protection Services, the Ventura County-based bodyguard service that he has been running out of an Oxnard office since last year.

Ask the former college basketball player how he got into the business and he’ll spin fantastic tales about his 16 years as a jack-of-all-trades in Las Vegas. He delivered money, escorted high rollers around town, worked as a bodyguard during the Larry Holmes-Muhammad Ali prize fight and even dabbled in bounty hunting, he says.

But Himmelheber says he grew weary of Vegas’ fast-paced lifestyle and decided to branch out on his own.

The tall Kentucky native selected Ventura County as the perfect place to locate his fledgling business last year. It was close enough to Beverly Hills--where he advertises in the Yellow Pages under Security--for him to pursue the big-ticket clients that he wanted, but at the same time far enough away so he “wouldn’t have to live in the war zone,” he says.

Himmelheber, who also teaches kenpo jujitsu, opened the White Tiger Karate Studio in El Rio and started looking for recruits.

The school was inundated with applications after running an advertisement in a local newspaper. Now, less than a year later, the 15 students who made it through the training sessions have begun taking assignments as bodyguards.

“Being a bodyguard is a bit glamorous--no, prestigious--and there’s a lot of excitement in it too,” said Edward Michaels, 23, of Ventura, who works as a bouncer at a local nightclub. At 6 feet, 3 1/2 inches tall and 235 pounds, Michaels is an imposing figure, which has already come in handy on his first assignments, he said.

“The jobs have called for someone to be intimidating, and that’s what we are,” Michaels said, pointing at his fellow bodyguards.

Intimidation by appearance is a key to being a successful bodyguard, Himmelheber said. It is also not too difficult for the recruits, most of whom are well over six feet tall and 200 pounds.

“You can’t just go in and kill somebody, or beat him up or hit him usually,” Joe Roberts of Ventura said. “But how would you feel if three of us were just sitting right there behind you and staring you down?”

Still, there’s more to being a bodyguard than brawn and muscle, Himmelheber teaches. Courses cover everything from surveillance techniques to crowd control and even restaurant etiquette--”in case you have to dine with a client,” Himmelheber explains.

Some of the training offered seems to have little to do with the work done by Himmelheber’s bodyguards--whom he refers to as agents. Would-be protectors bone up on the stock market, business, even politics.

Why politics?

“Say your client is a heavy-hitter Republican, and in the course of a conversation with him you can’t even tell him who the vice president is--you’re going to look pretty stupid, aren’t you?” Himmelheber explains.

One of the highlights of the eight-week training period is the “kill or be killed” exercise, which is also conducted at the Esplanade.

During the drill, prospective bodyguards attempt to escort Himmelheber from one end of the mall to the other, alone.

An assassin--really one of Himmelheber’s friends--waits inside a cigar shop, ready to dart out when the pair walk by and tap the bodyguard on the back, a sign that he has failed in his task and been killed.

Over the course of an hour, each of the recruits escorting Himmelheber through the mall is killed, experiencing firsthand why the company insists on sending a minimum of two agents on every assignment.

“No one has eyes in the back of his head. You can’t be a bodyguard on your own,” Himmelheber preaches to the recruits later.

The strategy is not only practical, it can be profitable too. The minimum assignment that Himmelheber accepts is a four-hour, two-person job, for which he charges $250. Expenses and mileage are extra.

Although most of the firm’s business in its inaugural year has involved domestic disputes, Himmelheber was ready when the calls began pouring in during the first hours of the Los Angeles riots in April.

“People were desperate,” Himmelheber said. “They were offering us money to turn down other jobs so we could defend their businesses. I had to turn down seven jobs because I didn’t have enough agents to meet the demand.”

The main job that AAA Protection Services took was at a Culver City retail store and warehouse specializing in up-market furnishings. It is next to a giant Fedco store that was looted when the riots began.

When Himmelheber and his six-man team arrived, the neighborhood was on fire, and looters were making off with pieces of custom furniture that retail for thousands of dollars, said Anna Bromfield, assistant to shop owner Nancy Corzine.

Himmelheber and his armed, fatigue-clad squad evicted the looters, after which they guarded the facility and sought to prevent fires raging next door from engulfing the structure.

If the bodyguards had not arrived when they did, Bromfield said, “it is more than likely the business would have gone up in flames.”

Himmelheber’s employees jumped at the chance to see some real action.

“No, I wasn’t scared. We don’t train for patty-cakes,” said Ben (Pineapple) Villegas, a tall, burly Oxnard resident who graduated from Himmelheber’s first bodyguard training class this year.

“I just went up to everyone I saw and told them to get the hell out,” Villegas said. “They couldn’t really say much because we had guns pointing in their face.”

AAA Protection Services agents do not usually carry weapons--none of them have permits to carry concealed weapons--but in this case they were on private property and carrying guns at the owner’s behest.

The riots--and the subsequent exposure that AAA Protection Services received after being featured in a Wall Street Journal article on how businesses coped with the riots--have given the company a higher profile, which means more work for the bodyguards, none of whom have given up their day jobs yet.

And what is normal business for a bodyguard?

The job that Himmelheber seems most proud of was when the firm was hired to spend a day shadowing the Pepsi Girls, renowned for singing the “Uh-huhs!” in commercials with Ray Charles.

The singers were hired to help open a huge Target store in Fontana, and AAA Protection was hired to make sure nothing happened to them, Himmelheber says, pointing to an autographed poster commemorating the assignment.

But most of the firm’s work is hardly that glamorous, Himmelheber says, with more than half of all assignments involving domestic disputes.

AAA agents escorted former NBA star Larry Drew and his wife to court to protect him from an angry ex-spouse.

They served a restraining order in Los Angeles, then spent the next four days at the home of a Hollywood producer waiting for the guy to break it. When he did, AAA agents were on hand to boot him off the property.

All in a day’s work, Himmelheber said.

But Himmelheber draws the line at what his agents will or won’t do.

“I’m not going to be hired out to go beat up anybody or break any laws. I always tell people I don’t do that anymore.”