NEWPORT — In Vista, Calif., the manager of a grocery store was warned over the telephone that he could be shot at any time and was being watched.

In Prescott, Ariz., a caller said he knew the supermarket manager was sitting down because he could see him, making his violent threats more believable.

And in Hutchinson, Kan., supermarket employees were ordered to get rid of their cell phones and to take off their clothes by a caller who said he could see inside the store. Some actually disrobed.

In each of these recent episodes, as happened at the Wal-Mart in Newport on Tuesday, the caller threatened to detonate a bomb if money was not wired to him. But the Newport Wal-Mart is the only store that reportedly complied with the demand, wiring $10,000 overseas. A manager at a grocery store in Buchanan, Kan., nearly did the same until he lost contact with the caller.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is assisting local police, says these and other phoned-in extortion attempts at supermarkets, banks and department stores in nearly a dozen states around the country appear to be related. Most have occurred in just the past week and have involved frightening evacuations and dramatic police responses. The threats continued yesterday.

“At this point, there are enough similarities that it appears to be one person or one group of folks,” said FBI spokesman Rich Kolko. “Some of the leads have led us to look overseas.”

Some reports have suggested that the calls originated in Portugal.

The Newport case, while apparently the most rewarding to the extortionist and the most costly to any business so far, may actually be the most helpful to authorities. The Newport police say the money transfer is providing them with leads to follow.

“We now know where the money was transferred to. Once the money was wired, it was cashed right away,” Quinnsaid. “The officials on the other end have been working with us … in an attempt to identify someone. They are closing in on the identity of the individual.”

While neither the Newport police nor the FBI criticized the Newport Wal-Mart for giving in to the extortionist’s demand, a corporate security consultant expressed dismay at the $10,000 payment.

“Wow,” said Charles Carroll II, vice president of business development for ASET Corp., an Ohio-based firm that has provided services to Wal-Mart, along with such other major American corporations as General Electric, General Motors and Xerox. “You’re telling me a Wal-Mart store made the payment?”

Carroll said the money should never have been sent.

“All you are doing is inviting an epidemic across the United States,” he said. The message sent to criminals is “ ‘you have the ability to get money from us if you say the right things’ … It’s the same philosophy our government has about negotiating with terrorists, because all you are doing is telling them their philosophy works.”

Carroll said he would be surprised if corporate officials at Wal-Mart signed off on the decision to send the money, speculating that it was a decision made by a store manager. Wal-Mart should have a policy for how to handle such situations, he said, and the Newport case raises questions as to whether a policy was ignored or was not in place at all.

“This is something, to be honest with you, that America is not prepared to deal with, to deal with acts of terrorism, whether that be people related to the global war on terrorism or people here, homegrown, and taking advantage of the global war on terrorism and playing on those fears,” he said.

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman declined to answer questions yesterday.

“It is an open investigation. We’re referring any questions over to the investigating units. I can tell you we are assisting federal and local law-enforcement units as they conduct their investigations. And beyond that I wouldn’t have any additional information,” said spokeswoman Sharon Weber.

Newport Police Sgt. James Quinn, when asked about Wal-Mart’s payment decision, said, “I don’t like to second-guess the mindset of people that are in these situations. … There was a lot of speculation that the individual was inside the store.”

Kolko, the FBI spokesman, said, “We can’t officially make recommendations on that. … That’s a decision they have to make.”

Kolko did urge businesses across the nation to “keep your people safe” and to “be a good witness for us.” He suggested that victims immediately take notes of what they have observed and said many companies provide handy tip sheets for employees on how to handle bomb threats.

Kolko said the first reported bomb threat occurred on Aug. 23. But, he said, “It really started going on Sunday.” He listed the victims as “grocery stores, banks and Wal-Marts” in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Oregon, Virginia, Texas and Utah, in addition to Rhode Island. Media reports also indicated the scam targeted businesses in Indiana and California. Many of these businesses have banks or offer in-house money-wiring services.

On Tuesday, an anonymous caller made a bomb threat against a Dillons grocery in Hutchinson, Kan., demanding money and ordering everyone in the store to disrobe, according to the Associated Press. The police said no money was paid. Yesterday, the police responded to three more bomb threats against Dillons in Hutchinson.

Authorities said Tuesday’s caller appeared to have visual access to the grocery, although officials were investigating whether the caller was out of state and may have hacked into the store’s security system.

“If they can access the Internet, they can get to anything,” Hutchinson Police Chief Dick Heitschmidt said.

The Newport police speculate that the caller convinced employees he might be nearby merely by listening closely to everything the person on the phone said and conversations in the background. He might have repeated names he heard to make it sound like he was intimately familiar with what has happening inside the store, said Quinn.

“People inside the store believed he was inside the store because he’s identifying people in the store,” he said. “It heightens the state of fear of people inside the store.”

In Buchanan, Ind., an anonymous caller claimed to have placed a bomb in the aisle of a Hardings supermarket. He was on the phone with the store manager for an hour and a half while employees remained inside the store, according to a report in the South Bend Tribune. The manager was arranging for money to be wired when the phone line went dead, at which point the employees were evacuated.

rsalit@projo.com