f13.net

"This individual apparently did take a spoonful, did have a finger in their mouth and then, you know, spit it out and recognized it," said Ben Gale, director of the department of environmental health for Santa Clara County. "Then they had some kind of emotional reaction and vomited."

No freaking way!  How the hell does someones finger get lost in a bowl of chili?

Read Fast Food Nation, especially the chapter about meat processing plants. 2 years later, and I'm still off fast food (except Burgerville cuz dang that shit is hell of tasty).

Woman Finds Human Finger In Her Chili (http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/032305_nw_chili_finger.html)
Health Officials Confirm Discovery
(ABC7)
Mar. 23 (ABC7) — Customers at a San Jose fast food restaurant became ill after seeing a foreign object in their chili and health officials have confirmed what that object was: a human finger. Now, a full-scale investigation is underway.

Note: We should warn you, some of the video associated with this story may be disturbing.

Devina Cordero, Wendy's customer: "It was in the lady's chili. She actually had it in her mouth, and she spit it out."

Devina Cordero and her boyfriend, Daniel Barragan, were at the next table, eating chili too.

Devina Cordero, Wendy's customer: "She says there's a human finger and I started gagging."

Police were called and health officials today confirmed it.

Joseph O'Hara, MD, Santa Clara County medical examiner: "It was a human finger. This is a photograph of it."

An adult fingertip that was torn from a hand.

How it got into the chili is still a mystery.

The chili was made from scratch at midday on Tuesday and served for five hours before the finger was discovered. Health officials say it is cooked at 170 degrees.

Marty Fenstersheib, MD, county health officer: "That temperature would allow for the destruction of any viruses that I would be concerned about, hepatitis viruses in particular, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, C and the HIV virus."

The woman who had the finger in her mouth has returned home to Las Vegas to see a doctor.

The couple who ate from the same batch of chili are doing the same.

Devina Cordero, Wendy's customer: "It was really disgusting, and we haven't been able to eat. We've been throwing up. We haven't eaten since."

Wendy's issued a statement, saying "we are committed to determining the facts and getting to the bottom of this matter very quickly. Wendy's takes food safety and quality very seriously."

Health officials confiscated all of the contaminated chili.

Andy Moore, San Jose resident: "I might be a little apprehensive about maybe ordering a chili the next time out."

Officials have launched what they call a trace-back. They are going to contact all of the food processors who made the ingredients. Somewhere, someone is missing a finger.

The medical examiner says there is enough tissue on the finger to get a fingerprint. That may also help to find out what happened and where it happened.

But the finger should never have gotten into someone's chili.

Santa Clara County health officials are asking anyone who ate at the Wendy's at Alma & Monterey in San Jose to call (408) 918-3400 if they have any information.

People are so squeamish. I bet that finger was way tastier and fresher than the chunks of dried-out old burger in the chili.

Shit, slap a Deluxe on it and sell it for $.50 more than traditional chili.

How much is a finger in the chili worth these days?

Lawyers?

Was it finger lickin' good?

Finger Found in Wendy's Chili--Sales Drop Sharply (http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/features/strangenews/apress_032605_fingerchili.html)
(Columbus, Ohio--AP, March 26, 2005) — Sales have dropped sharply at Wendy's restaurants in the area of northern California where a woman claimed she found part of a finger in a bowl of chili.

A company spokesman says "It is an isolated incident. However, it is dramatically affecting sales in that market."

A restaurant analyst says he doesn't expect Wendy's business to suffer long-term. He says the hamburger chain serves about six million meals a day across the country and has a "national reputation for both quality and cleanliness."

Police in Santa Clara, California, say so far it's impossible to tell whether the finger was cooked along with the main batch of chili or somehow dropped into the serving cup afterward.

I'm not eating in Wendy's again.  Not that I was a frequent visitor before but one finger in the chili is one finger too many in anyplace I intend to have a meal.

But the chicken-headed McNugget was somehow more palatable?

Like's been mentioned before, read "fast food nation" and you won't eat anywhere again.

I don't eat at McDonalds either.  Don't put words in peoples mouths it just makes you look like an idiot.

Pot.  Kettle.  Black.

He quoted me and directed his response to me, Bruce.  I'm not making out like he said something he didn't actually say.  Go troll someone else for awhile, you're getting to be a stalker. 

Having learned to think like a lawyer 

Woman Won't Sue Wendy's for Alleged Finger (http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=665523)

Woman Who Claims She Found Finger in Wendy's Chili Won't Sue Fast-Food Chain

SAN JOSE, Calif. Apr 13, 2005 — A woman who claimed she scooped up a human finger along with her chili at a Wendy's restaurant has decided not to sue the fast-food chain.

Anna Ayala dropped her claim because it "has caused her great emotional distress and continues to be difficult emotionally," said her attorney, Jeffrey Janoff.

Ayala, 39, claimed she found the 1 1/2-inch long fingertip on March 22 while dining at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose. She later filed a claim with the franchise owner, Fresno-based JEM Management Corp., which her attorney had said was the first step before filing a lawsuit.

Phone calls to Ayala's house went unanswered Tuesday. Investigators searched her Las Vegas home last week as part of their investigation into how a finger ended up in the chili.

Wendy's spokesman Denny Lynch declined to comment on Ayala's decision to drop the lawsuit but said a reward hot line to receive tips will remain open. Wendy's has offered $50,000 to the first person who can provide verifiable information that identifies the origin of the finger.

"It's very important to us to find out what really happened at the restaurant," Lynch said. "We will continue to fully cooperate with the police investigation."

Wendy's maintains the finger did not enter the food chain in its ingredients. None of the employees at the San Jose store had lost any fingers, and no suppliers of Wendy's ingredients reported any hand or finger injuries, the company said.

The Santa Clara County coroner's office used a partial fingerprint to search for a match in an electronic database but came up empty. DNA testing is still being conducted on the finger.

Finger in Wendy's chili may be linked to leopard attack (http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=13270)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Police in California say they're checking out a possible lead in the case involving an allegedly contaminated bowl of Wendy's chili.

San Jose police are investigating the case of a woman who lost part of her finger in a leopard attack. The woman, who has several exotic animals, reportedly got the finger back in a bag of ice, after doctors couldn’t re-attach it. She lives in a town about 45 miles north of Las Vegas.

A month after that attack, a Las Vegas woman reported biting into a human finger while eating a bowl of Wendy’s chili. Today, the woman’s lawyer confirmed that she’s decided not to sue.

That word comes a day after an animal sanctuary employee called a Wendy’s hotline to suggest the finger might be linked to the February leopard attack.

Wendy’s has maintained the finger allegedly found in the chili had not been cooked, and that it didn’t enter the supply chain as part of its ingredients.

Leopard-bitten finger no match for Wendy's (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/16/FINGER.TMP)
Digit found in chili still a mystery -- reward now $100,000

Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer

The mystery of how a human finger ended up in a bowl of chili at a San Jose Wendy's took another turn Friday when authorities said a comparison with a fingertip chewed off by a leopard in Nevada ruled out a match.

Speculation had swirled after a tipster called Wendy's on Tuesday about a possible link between the finger a Wendy's diner said she had found March 22 and Sandy Allman, 59, of Pahrump, Nev. Allman lost the tip of a finger Feb. 23 when a leopard kept on her rural property attacked her.

The woman who reported finding the finger, Anna Ayala, lives in Las Vegas, about an hour's drive from Pahrump. Allman said she had last seen her fingertip at a Las Vegas hospital after doctors told her they were unable to reattach the digit.

On Friday afternoon, the sheriff's office in Nye County, Nev., sent a copy of Allman's fingerprints to San Jose police -- who promptly ruled out any link.

"We had our latent print examiners analyze the fingerprints from the lady in Nevada, and we determined it's not a match to the finger found at the Wendy's restaurant," said San Jose police Officer Enrique Garcia. "Now, we just need to continue with the investigation. In any kind of whodunit, you look at your options, and you eliminate your leads, and this is one we've eliminated."

Allman, through her attorney, expressed relief at the news. She said being thrust into the notorious case took a mental toll on her and disrupted her life.

"She's glad that the ordeal is over, and we're pleased that she's exonerated," said the attorney, Philip Sheldon. "Both of us hope that Wendy's can find out whose finger it is and how it got into the chili."

While dining on chili at a Monterey Road Wendy's, the 39-year-old Ayala said she bit down on a 1 1/2-inch fingertip. The case has drawn media attention from around the world and, according to Wendy's officials, led to a sharp drop in sales.

On Friday, Wendy's doubled its reward to $100,000 for tips that lead to the finger's original owner.

"We've had $50,000 out there, and we've got some information, but we feel there is still more information out there that for some reason hasn't come forward," said Steve Jay, a regional Wendy's spokesman. "We know that someone knows what has transpired here, and we want to get to the truth."

Tom Mueller, Wendy's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement the company had conducted a thorough internal investigation that included lie-detector tests on employees. He said he was confident the finger did not come from any of its employees or its suppliers.

"Our independent franchisees and their employees in the San Francisco Bay Area are the real victims," Mueller said. "They have been especially hard hit by the negative publicity caused by the incident. They've done nothing wrong, yet they are paying a severe price with sales down significantly in the area."

He said some local franchises had been forced to lay off employees because of slow sales and scale back hours for many other workers. The company ran its first newspaper advertisements Friday announcing the company's reward and tip line.

San Jose police, meanwhile, said there were no other new developments in the case. Authorities were pleased that Wendy's boosted the reward and hope it will prompt more leads.

"We know that people have knowledge about what happened, and somehow we need to motivate these people to come forward with information to resolve this case," Officer Garcia said.

While police have not named any suspects in the case, investigators conducted an unannounced search of Ayala's Las Vegas home April 6. Ayala, who has steadfastly maintained she did not plant the finger, filed a claim against Wendy's but withdrew it Tuesday, saying the media and police scrutiny was causing her family "emotional distress."

"People can say what they want and destroy my family, but it's not true," Ayala said Thursday. "This is really ruining my kids and me and dragging my family through the mud. It's killing us."

...
 the company had conducted a thorough internal investigation that included lie-detector tests on employees.

By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA, Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS - The woman who claimed she found a finger in her bowl of Wendy's chili last month has been arrested, the latest twist in a bizarre case about how the 1 1/2-inch finger tip ended up in a bowl of fast food.

Anna Ayala was taken into custody late Thursday at her Las Vegas home, police said.

Authorities would not provide details until a news conference Friday in San Jose, Calif. — the city where Ayala claimed she bit down on the finger in a mouthful of her steamy stew.

Ayala's 18-year-old son, Guadalupe Reyes, said he had gone to the store around 9 p.m. when he got a phone call from a friend who was back at the Las Vegas home.

"We rushed back and she was already gone," Reyes said.

Reyes said he had no other details and was waiting to hear from his mother.

Ohio-based Wendy's International Inc. did not immediately return a call Friday.

Ayala's claim that she found the finger tip, complete with a well-manicured nail, on March 22 initially drew sympathy. But when police and health officials failed to find any missing digits among the workers involved in the restaurant's supply chain, suspicion fell on Ayala, and her story has become a late-night punch line.

Ayala hired a lawyer and filed a claim against the Wendy's franchise owner, Fresno-based JEM Management. But after police searched her home in Las Vegas and continued to question her family, she dropped the lawsuit threat, saying the whole situation was just too stressful.

"Lies, lies, lies, that's all I am hearing," Ayala said after police started questioning her. "They should look at Wendy's. What are they hiding? Why are we being victimized again and again?"

As it turns out, Ayala has a litigious history. She has filed claims against several corporations, including a former employer and General Motors, though it is unclear from court records whether she received any money. She said she got $30,000 from El Pollo Loco after her 13-year-old daughter got sick at one of the chain's Las Vegas-area restaurants. El Pollo Loco officials say she did not get a dime.

Earlier Thursday, Wendy's International Inc. announced it had ended its internal investigation, saying it could find no credible link between the finger and the restaurant chain.

Sales have dropped at franchises in Northern California, forcing layoffs and reduced hours, the company said. Wendy's also has hired private investigators, set up a hot line for tips and offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who provides information leading to the finger's original owner.

And where the hell did that finger come from?

Wendy's Finger Traced to Woman in Custody (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050513/ap_on_re_us/wendy_s_finger_4)

By GREG SANDOVAL, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The finger that a woman said she found in a bowl of Wendy's chili came from an associate of her husband who lost the digit in an industrial accident, police said Friday.

(http://us.news3.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/232,http%3A%2F%2Fus.news2.yimg.com%2Fus.yimg.com%2Fp%2Fap%2F20050506%2Fcapt.wxs30105062351.wendys_finger_wxs301.jpg?v=2)

"The jig is up. The puzzle pieces are beginning to fall into place," Police Chief Rob Davis said.

The man is from Nevada and lost a part of his finger in an accident last December, Davis said. His identity was traced through a tip made to Wendy's hot line, he said.

He said authorities "positively confirmed that this subject was in fact the source of the fingertip."

Anna Ayala, the woman who said she found the finger, was arrested last month at her suburban Las Vegas home.

Ayala said she bit down on a 1 1/2 inch-long finger fragment while dining with her family in March at a San Jose Wendy's.

But authorities had said they believed the story was a hoax.

Wendy's had offered $100,000 for information on the origin of the finger.