Shoplift Suspect Claims to Be Diplomat’s Wife

A woman arrested on suspicion of shoplifting Tuesday claimed to be the wife of the Pakistani consul general in Los Angeles, police reported, but the consul denied that’s who she is.

The woman detained by private guards at the Costco store at 6100 Sepulveda Blvd. said she was Aisha Khan, 41, and displayed papers identifying her as a relative of a Pakistani consular official, said Sgt. William McAllister of the LAPD’s Van Nuys Division.

Pakistani Consul General Aziz Khan confirmed that his wife’s name is Aisha, but insisted that she could not be the woman under arrest.

“Police must be confused over that, because my wife has not left the house,” Khan said. “Khan is a very common name in Pakistan--like Smith is here.”

During the 2 1/2 hours she was held at the store under citizen’s arrest before police arrived, the woman repeatedly claimed diplomatic immunity, McAllister and store employees said.

Aziz Khan said that if the woman were actually his wife, she would have known better. As a consul, he and his family do not enjoy the full diplomatic immunity that embassy diplomats and their families do, he noted.

“We are just normal people,” he said. “We have to pay parking tickets and traffic tickets just like everyone else.”

Len Scensny, a public affairs officer for the U.S. State Department in Washington specializing in the region that includes Pakistan, explained that some consular officers and their families do have limited immunity from local laws, “depending on what their home country chooses to preserve for them.”

Scensny, who was unaware of the arrest until being asked about it, conjectured that he would have been notified if the woman arrested was indeed the wife of Aziz Khan.

“To have a diplomat’s wife arrested for shoplifting is a big deal,” Scensny said.

The arrested woman was booked at the Van Nuys station on suspicion of shoplifting shortly after her 4:27 p.m. arrest Tuesday, then released on her own recognizance. A guard at the store said he had seen her leave the store with concealed merchandise.

Times staff writer Julie Tamaki contributed to this story.