HUTCHINSON, Kansas, Aug. 28, 2007 - The FBI is connecting a bomb threat at a Dillons store in Hutchinson to similar incidents across the country.  Investigators say this was a very serious, complex plot to get money.  They say it is happening across the nation and, they believe, one group is behind all of the threats.

A man called in the threat to the Dillons at 30th and Plum in Hutchinson.  During the phone call, he held 110 people hostage, ordering customers and employees to disrobe and to cut off the manager's fingers.  The hostages did not comply with all of his requests and, in the end, no bomb was found.

"He kept saying something to Mike that he could see him because he moved to the right and he said, 'I want you to move back,'" Elaine Peterson, hostage, said.  "So, he evidently could see that (Mike) had moved.  So, that made us think he was in the store.  We don't know."

The FBI says while the suspects may have sounded convincing, investigators don't believe they were ever in the store, possibly not even calling from the state of Kansas or even the United States for that matter. All the demands given over the phone are similar to other situations across the country.

"We don't know what their method is for picking these banks," Jeff Lanza, FBI, said. "We don't know if it's random or if they’re picking these banks out of a phone book or what.  We're not sure if it's someone inside the United States or not.  That's what we're trying to figure out right now."

In Prescott, Arizona at 8 a.m. PDT, a suspect called a bank inside a Safeway and demanded money.  Last Friday in Savannah, Missouri, a phone call to another bank there demanded money be transferred to an off-shore account. At least a portion of that ransom was sent.

"We have to follow the flow of the money as you would in any case," Lanza said.  "However, with wire transfers, it's very difficult to follow it to the person who receives it on the other end because very few records are kept on the recipient end of the wire transfer."

The FBI does say there are more locations than just these three, but they will not confirm a number or say exactly where the other incidents took place across the nation.