© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A view of an aisle at Walmart’s newly remodeled Supercenter, in Teterboro, New Jersey, US, June 7, 2023. REUTERS/Siddharth Cavale/File Photo
(Reuters) – Law enforcement officials and retailers are investigating the latest wave of bomb threats across the United States, targeting grocery and other store operators, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
The report said that retail companies including Kroger (NYSE: ), Walmart (NYSE: ), and Amazon (NASDAQ)’s Whole Foods Market, among others, have received bomb threats at their stores in recent months, adding that some callers have asked Gift cards, bitcoins or cash and threaten to set off bombs if payments are not made.
These threats have spread to different regions from New Mexico to Wisconsin. At a Kroger-owned store in New Mexico, a female employee received a call from a suspect who asked her to wire money and said a bomb would go off if she called the police.
A similar incident was reported in a suburb north of Chicago, where a caller told a Whole Foods employee that a pipe bomb had been placed in the store and demanded $5,000 in bitcoin, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper added that the FBI said it works with local and state law enforcement officials and requires members of the public to maintain awareness of their surroundings and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.
According to the report, it is not clear to the authorities whether the threats were part of an organized effort.