A 35-year-old Campbell man is behind bars after San José police say he carried out a string of armed robberies that hit smoke shops, convenience stores and motels across the city over roughly a month this summer. Andrew Fiddler was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on July 21 on armed robbery charges tied to at least six separate hold-ups between June 18 and July 20.
According to a statement from San José Police Media Relations, the spree began just after 1:35 AM on June 18, when patrol officers responded to an armed robbery report at a business in the 5800 block of Camden Avenue. Police say an adult male suspect entered the business, brandished a firearm at a victim employee, took cash and fled before officers arrived. Investigators say additional robberies followed at a business in the 2300 block of Stevens Creek Boulevard on June 30, a business in the 1300 block of Blossom Hill Road on July 15, a business back in the 5800 block of Camden Avenue on July 17, a business in the 2500 block of Fontaine Road on July 18, and a business in the 2400 block of Alvin Road on July 20.
SJPD Arrests Suspect for Armed Robbery Crime Spreehttps://t.co/3lYxcII7Qh pic.twitter.com/FytQ6HZ68D
— San José Police Media Relations (@SJPD_PIO) August 6, 2026
SJPD Robbery Unit detectives identified Fiddler as the primary suspect and say they discovered evidence linking him to multiple armed robberies across those locations. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant, and the department's Real Time Intelligence Center assisted the investigation. That unit integrates live feeds from roughly a third of the city's traffic cameras with Automated License Plate Reader data to help track suspects and guide officers, according to the City of San José. Robbery Unit detectives used ALPR cameras as part of the effort to pin down Fiddler's location.
Search Warrant and Arrest
Detectives also obtained a search warrant for an associated residence in San José, where Robbery Unit investigators located evidence of the crimes while the warrant was served on July 21. SJPD's Covert Response Unit assisted detectives in locating and arresting Fiddler that same day. The Covert Response Unit is a specialized tactical surveillance detail often deployed alongside robbery, gang and homicide detectives to execute high-risk search warrants and apprehend wanted suspects, per the San Jose Police Department.
The pairing of plate-reader technology with covert tactical units has become a familiar pattern in San José robbery investigations. In January, police used ALPR alerts and the Covert Response Unit to catch an accomplice in a separate multi-day commercial armed robbery spree across convenience stores, though the main suspect in that case remained at large as of that report. In April, a similar approach helped detectives arrest four people connected to a sledgehammer-style watch heist at a San José mall.
Charges and Potential Sentencing
Fiddler has not yet been formally charged, and it remains an open question whether prosecutors will pursue multiple counts tied to each location or whether additional businesses were targeted beyond the six robberies detailed in the release. Under California Penal Code Section 211, robbery of a commercial business is charged as second-degree robbery, carrying state prison terms of two, three or five years per count, according to the Shouse Law Group. If a firearm was used, additional mandatory sentence enhancements under Penal Code Section 12022.53 could apply, and robbery convictions also count as violent felony strikes under California's Three Strikes Law.
Part of a Broader Crime and Surveillance Debate
The arrest lands amid a broader citywide trend: reported violent crime in San José fell 15% in 2025 to 4,963 incidents, continuing a decline from a 2023 peak of 6,046 violent crimes, according to FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data cited by San José Spotlight. City officials have credited expanded high-tech surveillance and proactive policing for part of that drop, and a 2025 SmartAsset study separately ranked San Jose as the safest among the 50 largest U.S. cities based on low per-capita violent and property crime rates.
That same surveillance infrastructure remains contested. A coalition of civil liberties advocates led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued the City of San Jose over police access to stored ALPR databases, arguing that querying historical plate scans amounts to warrantless surveillance that logs the daily movements of non-suspect residents. The city has also funded high-visibility retail patrols since December 2023 aimed at curbing commercial theft and robbery sprees across shopping corridors.
Anyone with information about these cases or similar incidents is asked to contact Detective Ledesma at [email protected] or 408-277-4166. Tips can also be submitted through the P3 Tips mobile app, by calling (408) 947-STOP, or through the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers website, which offers cash rewards up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest. The nonprofit tip program has operated in the county since 1982, when it launched as San José Crime Stoppers before expanding countywide in 2000.
