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This week in the security sphere, we have a rare opportunity to talk about something unrelated to AI. Unfortunately, the circumstances are anything but fortunate.

You may have already guessed that I’m referring to the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, a crime so brazen and so publicly visible that updates have occasionally interrupted Olympic coverage. I’m not ready to call it our generation’s Lindbergh baby, but it’s shocking how little apparent progress has been made so long after the crime was committed.

That becomes even more striking once you’ve seen the Google Nest camera footage showing the presumed, bumbling suspect trying, and failing, to disable the security device. As someone who has watched a metric ton of staged camera footage created for demonstration purposes, I can say the man in this video makes actors in those demo reels look like SEAL Team Six. It would almost be funny if the circumstances weren’t so horrifying.

Of course, that’s the most recent development. It reportedly took the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) more than a week to obtain access to the Nest camera footage, and for reasons you might not expect. As it turns out, Guthrie was not paying for a Google Nest subscription that would have saved the video of the incident for more than a few hours. That likely meant Google technicians had to retrieve the footage from deleted or archived data.

I can only imagine how many LinkedIn posts are ready to argue that this is exactly why everyone should be fueling the corporate RMR engine. But I would point out that I’ve known many people who are unwilling to add yet another subscription fee to their budget, security-related or not.

In some cases, it’s not even the cost that’s the sticking point. I doubt Savannah Guthrie’s mother would have struggled to afford a Google Nest subscription. And I don’t think people will see this as a sign to finally add one. Instead, it may reinforce skepticism at a time when many consumers are already questioning the value their security services provide.

Food for thought.