Hi, I live in California and I'm 16 years old. I got caught shoplifting when I was 15 years old at Mervyns in a mall. It was one of the worst days of my life. My friend (also 15 at the age) and I were caught by the store security and were brought into his office. We were handcuffed one hand to the benches that they had us sat on. They asked us for our information (name, address, phone, ID, etc.) The merchandise was worth less than $250 so I think it was considered a misdemeanor or petty theft. We were in there for about 2-3 hours. He was typing up our information on his computer and took pictures of us. He said we could never go back to the store and banned from the mall for 6 months.
Then he contacted the police and contacted our parents to pick us up. When the police came, he handed us to the police's custody, and the police officer drove us to a little police station at the end of the mall. Then when our parents came to pick up up, the police give our parents some papers to sign and we then were released. A few weeks later, my friend and I got a bill from Mervyns and it said, if we pay the fine, they won't take us to court. Then of course, we paid. About two weeks later, we got another letter telling us to go to a class for one day. The purpose of the class was basically teaching us not to do illegal stuff and making us realize our mistakes. The class had all people under 18 and they were there for different reasons, like getting caught doing drugs or drinking, shoplifting and many other reasons (but not serious like killing someone.)
I regret what happened very much and I am not going to do anything illegal again.
But my questions are:
1. Is it on my permanent record because I didn't have to go to court but the police were involved?
2. Does that mean I was arrested? For right now, when I apply for job or something, under the section have you ever been arrested, do I put yes or no? What about after I turn 18?
3. After I turn 21, if I want to apply to government jobs, would they have the access to see?
4. And is there any way to check my record? (other than finding an attorney because I know it would cost a lot of money to hire one)
Please help me with those questions if you can. Thank you

