Shuttered Santa Rosa school majorly damaged by copper theft, vandalism

A Santa Rosa elementary school that has been shuttered because of district budget constraints was severely damaged by copper thieves and vandalism, authorities said.The Santa Rosa Police Department said in a socila media post that it received a report of a burglary on Wednesday morning at Steele Lane Elementary School. Staff members arrived at the campus just before 9 a.m. and encountered three people inside school grounds, police said. They were directed to leave the campus and complied, and while staffers inspected the campus, they found extensive damage throughout consistent with copper wire theft, police said. The three suspects - two women, one on a bicycle, and a man in a wheelchair - were seen leaving the area with containers possibly holding the wire, police said.Electrical systems were stripped of copper wiring from multiple panels, and about 5,000 feet of copper wire was believed to have been stolen from the campus. The thieves also damaged the main office building with copp