I sure hope it's not related to any crime, known or unknown. He did have a wife and daughter, and might have used a "dead" pair of hose for some completely innocuous reason, like tying up a plant in the backyard.
I was a Target cashier in the early 1980s, and one day, a panic-stricken boy, about 10 years old, said, "Mom! We have to call the police! That man over there is going to rob a bank!" Mom asked him, "What makes you think that man is going to rob a bank?" and he replied, "HE'S BUYING PANTYHOSE!" Mom said, "That man is not going to rob a bank; his wife probably sent him to the store."