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Retail companies including Kroger, Walmart and Amazon's Whole
Foods Market, among others, have received bomb threats at their
stores in recent months, the report said, adding some callers
demanded gift cards, bitcoin or money and threatened to detonate
bombs if payments were not made.
A Kroger spokesperson confirmed the suspicious activities at
various Kroger locations, adding the company is "working closely
with local law enforcement and the FBI to investigate similar
threats that have taken place around the country at many retail
stores."
These threats have been spread across various areas from New
Mexico to Wisconsin. At a Kroger-owned store in New Mexico, an
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 Market employee a pipe bomb
had been placed in the store and demanded $5,000 in bitcoin,
according to the Wall Street Journal.
The FBI said it is working with local and state law-enforcement
officials and asking members of the public to maintain awareness
of their surroundings and report any suspicious activity to law
enforcement, the newspaper added.
According to the report it is unclear to authorities whether the
threats are part of an organized effort.
(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru, Additional reporting
by Chandni Shah and Jyoti Narayan, editing by Ros Russell and
Chris Reese)
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