4-Jan-18 – Struck in the head with a tire iron, a security guard on the Magnificent Mile needed stitches after a run-in with a woman he says was shoplifting.

The incident happened a few days before Christmas at Bloomingdale’s, located on six floors of 900 North Michigan Shops. The guard told police he saw a woman slip a $365 purse into a shopping bag and head for an exit at around 4:30 p.m. on December 22.

He stopped the woman from leaving the store and started to walk her back to the department store’s loss prevention office, but she pulled a tire iron from her sleeve and repeatedly hit the guard in the head with it.

Police identified the woman as 21-year-old Sierra Copeland (left) of the Washington Park neighborhood south of the Loop. She was charged with retail theft, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, and two counts of aggravated battery of a merchant. Her bail was set at $10,000.

A year ago, in January 2017, Copeland pepper-sprayed a security guard who tried to detain her at T.J. Maxx in the Loop, according to police.