FBI Is Close to Identifying Person Behind Bomb Threats

Aug. 31, 2007 — -- The FBI is close to identifying the person behind a string of recent telephone bomb threats that have scared U.S. businesses into wiring thousands of dollars to the caller's overseas bank account, a bureau spokesman said.

The FBI is investigating calls made to 24 grocery stores, banks and Wal-Marts in at least 12 states, Special Agent Richard Kolko told ABC News. The caller, who claims to be able to see into the stores, has threatened to blow up the buildings unless employees wire money to an overseas account.

"We have some real good investigative leads that are taking us overseas," Kolko said. In at least one case, local police said the bank account was located in Portugal.

Some employees have resisted, but others have wired thousands of dollars to the caller. Several stores have been evacuated and in one case customers took their clothes off at the caller's demand.

"At this point we think it is either one person or one small group of people," Kolko told ABC's Jim Avila.

Kolko said that there was no known connection to terrorism and that the FBI is treating the threats as a criminal matter.

"It seems to be a scare tactic by a criminal element in order to get money," he said.

The calls appear to target stores that have Western Union branches or other ways to transfer money from within the store. The first reported incident was about a week ago, in Sandy, Ore., where a Safeway store was evacuated after a bomb threat. As of Thursday morning, the FBI was investigating 15 threats. By Friday, that number had risen to 24.

Harold Skelton, the Sandy police chief, told ABC News that the caller asked Safeway employees to wire money to an account in Portugal. When employees resisted, the caller said he had a bomb, Skelton said. Employees called the police.

In Sandy and elsewhere across the country, the caller claimed to be able to see inside the stores, but police are skeptical.

However, the unnerving threats have been enough to persuade some frightened employees to cooperate. Berrien County, Mich., Sheriff Paul Bailey, who is investigating a threat on a local supermarket, said the caller convinced both the employees and the police that he was watching.

"The manager said they would blow up the store if we talk to you [the police]," he said. "We thought he was inside the store."

In Newport, R.I, Wal-Mart employees wired about $10,000 to an overseas account after receiving three separate calls threatening to blow up the store, Sgt. James Quinn told ABC News. The caller appeared to know what was going on inside the store, but Quinn could not offer specifics on what the caller had said.

"That certainly heightened the fear of the people in the store that day," Quinn said.

A Dillons supermarket store employee in Hutchinson, Kan., told the Hutchinson News that the caller told the customers to remove their clothes. More than 100 people were held in the store for more than an hour. The customers initially resisted, but some took their clothes off after the caller made more threats, the paper reported.

Manager Mike Piros declined to comment when contacted by ABC News.

So far no one has been hurt, but the FBI's Kolko said, "At this point there have been no devices found, but we are legitimately concerned that it could happen in the future or it could inspire copycats."

That may have already happened in Hutchinson. Wednesday, the day after the original threats, three other Dillons stores in the city received bomb threats. Police said they arrested a 24-year-old man in connection with the those threats.