I live in Virginia. A few weeks ago, my 16yo daughter and her 20yo cousin decided to shoplift from sears. They were caught stealing 1 shirt and 1 pair of jeans. I think the value was less than $60. The 20 yo cousin was arrested and my daughter was left at the store for me to pick her up. I live over an hour away and it took me a long time to get there. When I got there, my daughter was sitting there with the security people, 1 guy who looked really young like 18 and an older girl. the young guy was nice and had me sign a form saying that he released me to her mom and he checked my id. he also gave me a form about a civil demand. He explained it to me and then told me to call the 1800 number if i had any questions. He was nice but kinda short with all the explanations. I asked if they could not prosecute,but he said sears has a 100% prosecution policy over a certain dollar amount.
a couple of questions, what is the civil demand form? why do I have to sign a release form? What will happen when we go to court? Like I said, the yougn guy was nice, but the girl was all tough and rude, will this have any affect on the court case? I realy want to complain about her behavior but don;t where to do it? When I got there, my daughter was talkign on her cell phoen and the guy had given her a bottle of water, can they do that? How long can they hold my daughter before it becomes illegel? my daughter was in the room for 2 hours. I know it took me 1 hour to get there and the police came and went, but how long can they legally hold her?

