From Bright Lights to Brutal Reality

His life imitates art, says Simi Valley Police Officer Tom Ohmer.

Since 1988, the 42-year-old Thousand Oaks resident has been a cop.

He spent four years with the Los Angeles Police Department before joining the Simi department in 1992. It’s a career Ohmer chose after more than a decade of waiting tables and portraying lawmen in bit parts for television and movies.

He was Agent Adam Thomas on “Days of Our Lives,” a freeway motor cop who pulled over Billy Crystal in “Forget Paris” and a man in uniform who kept order on “Melrose Place.”

“I had this habit of wanting to eat three times a day,” Ohmer said of his decision to seek steady work.

After becoming a real-life officer, Ohmer found that getting acting jobs, particularly cop roles, was much easier.

“I have a whole different attitude about the acting stuff,” he said. “I used to be terrified at auditions, shaking and my voice quivering. But now there’s no more desperation, because I don’t have to have the part.”

For now, Hollywood wants him.

In his latest role, Ohmer plays one of five detectives who interrogate a female suspect in a murder case in the Tom Cruise movie, “Magnolia,” which is currently being filmed.

His scene was shot last month in the courtyard of an apartment building in a less-than-nice part of Los Angeles.

“I enjoy being a police officer and I also like the break from it,” he said. “It’s such a dichotomy, cop and actor, because in one I deal with the ultimate fantasy world and then as a police officer it’s brutal reality.”

*

Three Studio City suspects--ages 25, 17 and 16--were arrested in Thousand Oaks recently after the attempted burglary of a house in Camarillo’s pricey Spanish Hills subdivision.

The homeowner drove up and scared off the would-be intruders before they got inside, sheriff’s Cmdr. Jeff Dean said.

Minutes later, deputies spotted the suspected getaway car on the Ventura Freeway.

The car was chased by authorities for about a mile before it was abandoned in a residential area at Ventu Park Road and Hillcrest Drive. The three fled on foot.

The suspected driver of the car, Kenneth Hall, 25, was caught by the police immediately. A 17-year-old was found about an hour later crouched inside a small outdoor water closet a few blocks away.

The youngest member of the group was craftier--or so he thought.

Authorities brought in two search helicopters and scent-sniffing dogs. A dozen deputies knocked on doors.

In the end, gut instinct prevailed.

Three hours into the search, as sheriff’s Det. Ernie Montagna was searching the area, he noticed a taxi drive by with a passenger slouched in the back seat.

The taxi then passed in front of the sheriff’s command post.

“If you can picture this, there are all these people around the command post who turn around to peer in this cab as it passes,” Dean said. “In Thousand Oaks, it’s not like Los Angeles where you see cabs every block.”

The 16-year-old had talked his way inside a woman’s home and called the cab, Dean said. He was arrested before he reached the end of the block.

Back inside the suspects’ car, deputies found a locked safe and two pillow cases stuffed with jewelry and electronic equipment that allegedly had been stolen earlier that day from a house in Agoura Hills.

“They are not sophisticated criminals, so to speak,” noted sheriff’s Sgt. Larry Kelley.

*

Oxnard Police Officers Mike Robison and Eric Sonstegard recently returned with an armful of trophies from a regional police canine contest in Phoenix.

Robison’s dog, Dino, sniffed out cocaine stashed in a ceiling and heroin planted in a light socket. In other tests, Dino was the most obedient dog and the best obstacle course runner.

Several first-place wins earned the pair the “Top Dog” award, the highest honor at canine competitions and the second time Robison and Dino have brought home an overall winner’s cup in less than a year.

“You work really hard to keep a dog tuned up,” Robison said. “This shows everybody you trained hard.”

Sonstegard, working with a new dog named Argos and participating in his first competition, received fourth place in a category that tests the abilities of individual handlers.

The department has used canines since 1983 and was one of the first in the county to use dogs. Today, the force has four dogs paired with four officers. A K-9 unit is on patrol 20 hours a day, seven days a week.

“I think they are one of the most important things we have because they save a lot of man hours and are excellent in officer safety situations,” Robison said.

*

Police say a small cinder-block restroom at the north end of Grant Park, behind Ventura City Hall, continues to be a hot spot for men in search of sex partners.

Dozens flock there daily to engage in quick, anonymous acts in small restroom stalls, according to Ventura Police Sgt. Bob Velez.

The problem has been ongoing for about 15 years, the sergeant said. The action at this particular restroom is even touted on an Internet site that promotes sex cruising spots.

Three sting operations in the last year have netted about a dozen arrests. All of the suspects are men. Velez said women don’t go near the place.

A similar problem existed at Plaza Park on Santa Clara Street and in a public men’s restroom just east of the Ventura Pier.

The city eventually made those places unappealing by tearing off stall doors and installing concrete barriers between the commodes.

*

Holly J. Wolcott can be reached at holly.wolcott@latimes.com.