KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The list of Missouri cities where police have alerted the FBI of suspicious bulk purchases of prepaid, disposable cellphones from Wal-Mart stores is growing.

Last weekend, two men bought roughly 60 of the phones in Lebanon in southwestern Missouri. Thirty-two cellphones were purchased in Macon, and an unspecified number of the phones were bought in Columbia.

But the Southeast Missourian of Cape Girardeau reports that on Dec. 4, police in Jackson say four dozen of the cellphones were bought at a Wal-Mart there.

Several prepaid cellphones also were purchased in Cape Girardeau, and Jefferson City police tell the Columbia Missourian that three people bought more than 50 of the phones at a Wal-Mart there.

Such phones, often called “burners,” can be bought and used anonymously, then discarded to avoid detection.

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