PITTSBURGH -- Two Giant Eagle stores are among several large grocery and discount stores nationwide that have been targeted by phone threats from a caller trying to extort money, authorities said.

A Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh's Brighton Heights section and a Giant Eagle Express in Harmar Township each received bomb threats early Monday morning. Police searched the buildings and didn't find anything dangerous.

At other stores across the country, frightened workers have wired thousands of dollars -- and in one case took off their clothes -- under orders from a caller who said he was watching them from far away.

The FBI and police said they are investigating similar bomb threats at more than 15 stores in at least 11 states -- all in the past week.

"At this point, there's enough similarities that we think it's potentially one person or one group," FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said from Washington, D.C.

No one has been arrested, no bombs have been found, and no one has been hurt, but the calls have prompted some store evacuations and sweeps by police bomb squads.

Law enforcement officials say the caller claims to have a bomb and orders the store to send money to an account through a transfer service such as Western Union. He often claims to be able to see inside the store, but officials believe he was making it up.

In Buchanan, Mich., on Monday, the caller directed employees of a Harding's market to lock the front doors, move to the front and told them not to call police, said Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey.

The man claimed he could see some workers standing up, and ordered them to sit down, but Bailey said the man was just "ad-libbing."

Still, employees were so afraid, they wired the caller $3,000. The manager even hung up the phone when authorities called, saying a bomb would go off if he talked to them.

The man even offered to trade a "hostage" for a police officer to make his threat more believable, police said.

At one grocery store in Hutchinson, Kan., the caller ordered customers and employees to disrobe, and said one of the manager's fingers would be cut off every hour his demands were not met. One employee got a knife on the caller's orders, police said, but the manager was not harmed.

In Prescott, Ariz., police said a caller with an accent led employees of one store to believe he was observing them. Police said it seemed he was guessing what they might be doing, what they looked like, or how they were reacting to his call.

A spokeswoman for Western Union said the company was working with the FBI and U.S. Secret Service to trace the money that was sent.

The FBI said the caller has not gotten every store to give up money, but they did not provide the total amount that was taken.

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