Through collaboration with the Santa Clara County Probation Department and the Mountain View Police Department, police arrested the suspect in the attempted robbery case that occurred on Tuesday, February 3, 2026.
On Tuesday, February 3, 2026, at about 8:25 a.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call of a robbery that had occurred about 10 minutes prior on the 700 block of East Meadow Drive. For details about the crime, read the news release we distributed on February 4, 2026 here.
Since then, officers and detectives have been actively working on the case. With help from the Santa Clara County Probation Department, Palo Alto detectives were able to identify the suspect, and on Friday, February 27, 2026, officers from Mountain View Police Department located and detained the suspect in Mountain View. Palo Alto Police detectives responded and arrested the suspect without incident.
The suspect arrested is 26-year-old John Curiel of San Jose. Curiel was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for robbery (a felony).
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be sent via text message by texting the keyword PAPD and the tip to 847411, or submitted using the "Palo Alto PD Tips" app, which is available via the App Store or Google Play.
To read this release on the city's website, click here: https://www.paloalto.gov/News-Articles/Police-Department/Police-Arrest-Suspect-for-Attempted-Robbery-of-Woman
