The Case of The Mysterious Human Finger in the Wendy's Chili

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

This was a weird case to begin with, and it keeps getting stranger.

Any of you hipsters lose a finger?


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Police Want Answers In Wendy's Finger Mystery



A woman says she spooned a severed finger out of a bowl of Wendy's chili at a San Jose, California restaurant last month,*and now, Wendy's is willing to pay for answers.

Wendy's officials say they've checked with employees and suppliers. They're convinced Wendy's supply chain is clean.

Now Wendy's is offering $50,000 to anyone who can*tell them*where the finger came from.

"What we're hoping for is that someone will come forward," Bob Bertini, a*spokesperson for Wendy's said.*"We're cooperating fully with the police department, we're doing everything we can to aid them in their investigation."*

The mystery of the finger deepened yesterday after police searched the Las Vegas home of the woman who says she made the revolting find.*

Anna Ayala said several officers, with guns drawn, handcuffed everyone in the house and tore the place apart searching for evidence.

"I was terrified," Ayala said.*"They put a gun to my head."*

Ayala*has a history of filing lawsuits - including a claim against another fast-food restaurant.

Ayala, 39, who hired a San Jose, Calif., attorney to represent her in the Wendy's case, has been involved in at least half a dozen legal battles in the San Francisco Bay area, according to court records.

She brought a suit against an ex-boss in 1998 for sexual harassment and sued an auto dealership in 2000, alleging the wheel fell off her car. That suit was dismissed after Ayala fired her lawyer, who said she had threatened him.

San Jose police dismissed rumors that the finger might have belonged to Ayala's late aunt.* However, investigators said they were still looking into the possibility that the missing finger was the result of an industrial accident or foul play.

"Understand at this point we don't know what happened to the rest if the body or the welfare of the person that owned the finger, which is one of the things we're trying to find out," says Sgt. Nick Muyo from the San Jose Police department.

The search was the latest twist in a tale that's caused Wendy's San Jose sales to plummet.

Fingerprint and DNA tests, so far, have been unable to indentify who the finger tip belonged to...or any motive in the case.*

Wendy's believes its restaurants and vendors will be cleared once the truth is discovered.*

The finger is with the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner's Office which is conducting tests to determine the race and gender of the person it once belonged to.

[jesus marion joseph]

"San Jose Woman Claims Wendy's Gave Her the Chili Finger".

[walto]

Didn't David Lynch do a movie about this? Seems like there were a lot of very close shots of specs of beans and ground beef dripping off the finger--all in slo-mo. Badalamente's music was cool, too IIRC--a cross between his regular, ethereal organ stuff and gritty salsa.

[Enforcer]

Originally Posted by walto

Didn't David Lynch do a movie about this? Seems like there were a lot of very close shots of specs of beans and ground beef dripping off the finger--all in slo-mo. Badalamente's music was cool, too IIRC--a cross between his regular, ethereal organ stuff and gritty salsa.

I don't recall, but it wouldn't surprise me. I'm a big fan of Lynch. I do think he's f**ked up in the head, though. To even have some of those ideas occur to you is strange enough. To actually go through the pains of making them into scenes in a movie is stranger.

"Baby wants to f**k!"

[Gentle Giant]

This cat's missing one....

[Sergio Zamora]

Ack! I just ate at a Wendy's near San Jose (well, relatively near) last week!

Originally Posted by walto

Didn't David Lynch do a movie about this?

Can't remember, but it reminded me 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2'

[Monte Smith]

Well come on. It is on the 99 cent menu.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

You should see what you get when you supersize it!

[RBS]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

"Baby wants to f**k!"

Blue Velvet, one of my favorite movies!!!!

Kyle McLachlan finds a disembodied ear in that one, and I think ants are crawling all over it.

"What do ya want, kid?"
"Heineken."
"Heineken?!? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!"

[jesus marion joseph]

I saw Lynch on one of the late night talk shows back during the "Twin Peaks" era. He had photos of a project he was doing. IIRC, it was a series of photographs where he shaped a blob of peanut butter like a stylized human head, then let ants crawl all over it, and he chronicled the degradation process. Too much mescaline if you ask me.

[cookie]

Remember when Cartman cooked Scott Tennerman's parents into chili and serves it to him? Remember the finger Scott dips up?

When the episode re-ran last week, all I could think of was the Wendy's episode. The finger looked much like the Wendy's finger was described: a well-manicure female finger.

Hmmm.....

[jazzy mary]

I saw Isabella Rosselini an dDavid Lynch at "Il Tre Merli" in Soho years ago. She was beautiful. They didn't look too happy though. They broke up a short time later.

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally Posted by jazzy mary

I saw Isabella Rosselini an dDavid Lynch at "Il Tre Merli" in Soho years ago. She was beautiful. They didn't look too happy though. They broke up a short time later.

Maybe she got bored with the peanut-butter-and-ants pictures.

[John L]

Wendy's Chili has always been finger lickin' good!

[crawjo]

From the details in the story it looks like the woman who "found" the finger is probably also the one who put it there.

Originally Posted by JMJ

Too much mescaline if you ask me.

I disagree. If that was the case, he'd have already seen that kind of shit and not needed to make a video of it.

Now Wendy's is offering $50,000 to anyone who can*tell them*where the finger came from.

And $20,000 to anyone who can at least point them in the right direction.

[bruce massey]

At least it was a finger and not a penis! Seems more of them get sliced these days. Check Bobbit!

Oh yeah, you must have missed that thread by thelil. I'm not sure if Lois deleted it or not, but he had a quaint story about some broad that found a pecker in her ketchup.

[JazzAt52ndStreet]

Originally Posted by crawjo

From the details in the story it looks like the woman who "found" the finger is probably also the one who put it there.

agreed

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

As you may imagine, it's been the topic of conversation on several Bay Area talk shows, and most folks thinks the woman planted it there. The police can evidently run a test to see if the finger was cooked the same way as the rest of the chili -- if they discover it wasn't, they'll dig up the aunt.

One wag suggested somebody was trying to dispose of an entire body, and the finger was just one of the big pieces that didn't get cut up finely enough.

Sounds like someone saw Fried Green Tomatoes one time too many.

[Mike Schwartz]

San Jo my current adopted hometown...is obviously the weird_ass fast food/chain restaurant story capitol of the USA [if not the world].

Does anyone rememeber from about 10-12 years ago there was a class action against Denny's regarding poor service to patrons of color?

You got it...the whole thing started right here in SJ.
That particular one right around the corner from where I live.
Denny's launched immediately into a kind of "We Are The World" campaign in advertising, and selling muti-colored neckties with pictures of multi-racial *happy people* on them.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

>>This March 23, 2005, black and white photo released by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health in San Jose, Calif., shows a portion of a human finger that Anna Ayala claims she found while eating a bowl of chili at a Wendy's Restaurant in San Jose, Calif., on March 22. Ayala, 39, who hired a San Jose, Calif., attorney to represent her in the Wendy's case, has been involved in at least half a dozen legal battles in the San Francisco Bay area, according to court records. (APPhoto/Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health)<<

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally Posted by Mike Schwartz

Does anyone rememeber from about 10-12 years ago there was a class action against Denny's regarding poor service to patrons of color?

Given the quality of the fare, Dennys may have been doing those folks a favor.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

I wonder if they'll dig up the aunt, now?

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(from The Sierra Times)

Woman in Wendy's Finger Case Arrested

Posted: Thursday April 21,2005 - 11:28:12 pm

SAN FRANCISCO - The woman who claimed she found a well-manicured finger in her bowl of Wendy's chili last month was arrested Thursday night in Las Vegas, police said.

Anna Ayala was taken into custody at her home, San Jose police spokesman Enrique Garcia said. Garcia said police would not give any further details about the arrest until a news conference Friday afternoon.


Ayala told police she found the finger in her chili March 22 while eating at a Wendy's in San Jose. Health officials say it was apparently a woman's finger, because of the long, manicured nail.


The Las Vegas woman claimed she intended to sue but relented, claiming the publicity was too emotionally taxing. Court records show Ayala has a history of making claims against corporations, including a former employer, General Motors and another fast-food restaurant.


Ohio-based Wendy's International Inc. ended its internal investigation of the incident Thursday, saying it found no credible link between the 1 1/2-inch-long finger tip and the restaurant chain.


All the employees at the San Jose store were found to have all their fingers, and no suppliers reported any hand or finger injuries, the company said.

[clinthopson]

Forked by the fickle finger of fate.

There's a Sherlock Holmes story about a guy who had his thumb chopped off. I don't think chili played a part in it.

[Dennis Gonzalez]

The local media reported that a local woman, Katherine Ortega, had found a fried chicken head in her McNuggets:

[frankenmeister7]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

Well come on. It is on the 99 cent menu.

what about chicken fingers with the sweet and sour sauce.

nobody will mention what has been in that batter lately.

[Mike Schwartz]

Police Consider Wendy's Case a Hoax
By KIM CURTIS, AP

SAN JOSE, Calif. (April 22) - Police investigating how a human finger ended up in a woman's bowl of Wendy's chili declared the claim a hoax Friday after she was arrested on charges of attempted grand larceny.

The arrest of Anna Ayala at her home outside Las Vegas was the latest twist in a case that has become a late-night punch line, taken a bite out of Wendy's sales and forced the fast-food chain to check its employees for missing fingers.

She was accused of attempted grand larceny because of the financial losses Wendy's restaurants have suffered since Ayala made the claim. The loss to Wendy's in the Bay area is $2.5 million, according to the felony complaint against her.

Ayala, 39, claimed she bit down on the well-manicured, 1 1/2-inch finger in a mouthful of her steamy chili on March 22 in San Jose. She had hired a lawyer and filed a claim against the Wendy's franchise owner, but dropped the lawsuit threat soon after suspicion fell on her.

When asked whether police considered Ayala's claim a hoax, David Keneller, captain of the San Jose police department's investigations bureau, said yes.



''Our evidence suggests the truest victims in this case are indeed the Wendy's owner, operators and employees here in San Jose,'' Police Chief Rob Davis said.

At a news conference, police refused to say where the finger originated and exactly how the hoax was carried out.

Ayala - who has a history of bringing claims against big corporations - has denied placing the finger in the chili. She is being held in Las Vegas after her arrest Thursday.

According to a person knowledgeable about the case who spoke on condition of anonymity, the charge stemmed from San Jose police interviews with people who said Ayala described putting a finger in the chili. The source said the interviews were with at least two people who did not know each other and independently told similar stories.

The criminal complaint also sheds more light on the incident at the restaurant in San Jose, where Ayala was visiting relatives.

None of Ayala's family members saw the finger fragment in her mouth, noticing it only after Ayala pointed to the object in the bottom of her chili cup, according to the document. She told a brother-in-law that she had spit it out.

Her father-in-law and mother-in-law told police they saw Ayala throw up, but there was no such evidence at the scene, the complaint says.

The Santa Clara County coroner's office also concluded that the finger ''was not consistent with an object that had been cooked in chili at 170 degrees for three hours.''

During the investigation, police and health officials failed to find any missing fingers among the workers in the restaurant's supply chain. Wendy's hired private investigators, set up a hot line for tips and offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the finger's original owner. Employees who were working that day at the restaurant also passed lie-detector tests administered by police, the complaint says.

The furor caused sales at Wendy's to drop, forcing layoffs and reduced hours in Northern California. Joseph Desmond, owner of the local Wendy's franchise, called the ordeal a nightmare.

''It's been 31 days, and believe me it's been really tough,'' he said. ''My thanks also go out to all the little people who were hurt in our stores. They lost a lot of wages because we had to cut back because our business has been down so badly.''

Wendy's hopes Ayala's arrest persuades customers to return to its Northern California franchises. The company is offering a free ''Junior Frosty'' at its Bay Area restaurants.

Ayala has filed claims against several corporations. She said she got $30,000 from a Mexican food chain after her 13-year-old daughter got sick at one of the restaurant, but the chain denied it paid her anything.

The complaint says investigators have found 13 civil actions involving Ayala or her children. At times, it says Ayala has settled cases for cash payouts before the lawsuits have gone to court.

Many loyal customers continue to support the Wendy's where Ayala made her claim.

Shortly after Friday's police news conference, Tom McCready headed into the restaurant and ordered two bowls of chili to go and a baked potato with chili on it.

''If they've got 10 fingers, it's OK with me,'' the San Jose retiree said about the Wendy's employees at the counter.

He said he and his wife have supported the restaurant since Ayala's claim, heading there more often and ordering the chili. His opinion of Ayala's claim: ''It's a crock.''

Ayala also was arrested on a warrant alleging grand larceny - a charge not related to the discovery of the fingertip. The police chief said the grand larceny allegation stemmed from a 2002 incident in which Ayala allegedly tried to sell a mobile home in San Jose that she did not own. The victim lost $11,000.

Ayala's son denied the grand larceny charge related to the mobile home sale.

''She didn't steal any money in connection with the trailer,'' Guadalupe Reyes Jr. said in brief comments to reporters while leaving the family's suburban Las Vegas house.

Associated Press writers Christina Almeida and Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.


AP-NY-04-22-05 20:39 EDT
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Late-Night Finger Jokes


AP

Jay Leno:
"I didn't know Wendy's sold finger food. I guess we know what Wendy's did with their founder, Dave Thomas."

"Instead of a spoon, they serve it with nail clippers."

David Letterman:
"She went back there for lunch today -- she's trying to collect all five."


Sources: msnbc.com, nytimes.com

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

>>The Santa Clara County coroner's office also concluded that the finger ''was not consistent with an object that had been cooked in chili at 170 degrees for three hours.''<<


Right --they've been describing it as "well-manicured", and you'd think thatr somewhere around the second hour in the hot chili it might start to lose that look.