Copper wire theft cost taxpayers in Santa Clara County more than $34,000 last weekend, according to police reports and officials.

The increasingly common crime -- believed attractive to drug users because of copper's unusually high price as scrap metal -- already hit the Hellyer County Park bicycle track last month.

Last weekend a school and a county maintenance yard were hit too. Thieves took more than $9,000 worth of copper wiring from both facilities and caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage.

At Anne Darling Elementary School in San Jose, thieves snagged $4,000 worth of copper wiring and caused about $25,000 worth of damage, manager of school construction Steve Adamo said.

Sometime between Saturday night and early Monday morning, someone slipped through a hole cut in the fence surrounding the campus and, likely using an on-site tractor, pulled electric conduits from the building that houses media .