Watching the horrible video of the kidnapper at Guthrie's door brings up a lot of questions. I have a ring camera

[Pisces]

and it goes sets an alert off on my phone when someone approaches. This guy was very nonchalant and approached the door a minimum of 3 times. That would be 3 alerts. He is not alarmed. The alerts could have gone to the sister down the street. This guy doesn’t know who is set to be alerted. His casual manner suggests he’s not worried, this is very suspicious to me. Anyone with this app knows you can see who’s at the door on your phone. If my mother lived alone I know that I would be included on the app.
This case is very strange and made stranger as more information is released.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. The owners of the technology may not know how to use it

The kidnapper may not know it can be used in that way, or may have approached to test it, and waited for any response which he didn't get, so he proceeded with his plan.

[doc03]

2. Why did he go pick weeds out of they yard to try and cover the camera? Didn't he think of

bringing some duck tape, seems like a really dumb criminal.

[Melon]

3. Kids and adults do stupid things everyday on camera.

I have a doorbell and hone security camera. I’ve had a package stolen while wearing a Walmart vest. Clear as day. In my area it’s a daily post of camera video of clear faces doing stupid things.

You don’t have to be smart to be a criminal. You typically want to be smarter to get away with it.

[Greg_In_SF]

4. There were no alerts

Her camera subscription had expired.

[Pisces]

5. You do not need to have a subscription to get alerts.

No, a paid Nest Aware (now rebranded as Google Home Premium) subscription is not required to receive basic camera alerts, but it is necessary for advanced, more intelligent notifications and extended video history. From google

[Greg_In_SF]

6. They're saying there were

no alerts from what I gather. Why didn't they work?

[rsdsharp]

7. Wasn't it close to 2 AM? The alert may have sounded, and she didn't hear it,

perhaps because she was asleep, didn’t have her hearing aids, and/or her phone wasn’t nearby or the volume turned down.