Shoplifting teen in New York City

My 15 year old was caught shoplifting in a New York City store. Her parents were not in the state of NY. Our child was with a friend and her aunt and uncle. The uncle of the friend handled the situation with the store managers. He paid damages at the store and the two teens signed a paper stating they would not go back into any of these stores nationwide for 3 year. This was in July '05.
We just received a letter from a NY law firm saying we had to pay $500 in 20 days for damages or court action would be taken against us.
The police were called but the teen were not booked. We were informed by the uncle that the damages were paid and that was the end of the matter as long as the teens did not enter any of this company's stores.
We live in Louisiana. We signed nothing and the only thing our child signed was an agreement not to enter the stores for 3 years.
What shoudl we do. This is our child's first and only offense.

You need to figure out what "damages" were paid by the uncle, and if this is an attempt to get duplicate "damages" under the New York civil demand statute.

Why not make your child pay? Or pay it yourself and make you child get a P/T job to pay you back? Maybe a lesson might be learn't that way?!? Just a thought. But consider this: If she doesn't have to feel some form of punishment you may very well have to deal with this again... And no, crying about it and saying you'll never do it again doesn't mean anything.