Woman Won't Sue Wendy's for Alleged Finger

The public's just gonna eat this up.

Wendy's is finger lickin good.

What's the difference between homeless Russians and Wendy's?

I give up, what?

Wendy's apparently has people lose their fingers IN chili.

And homeless russians lose their fingers WHEN its chilly.

Um... so the answer is very little.

But still, there is this connection...

They knew the finger belonged to the woman because it didn't smell like chili. It smelled like tuna.

Re: Woman Won't Sue Wendy's for Alleged Finger
This story is so bizarre/not quite believeable, I have the urge to lend some fingers of my own, as in thumbs down!


Anna Ayala dropped her claim (like the finger in the chilly?!) because it "has caused her great emotional distress (someone's missing a FINGER...and she's distressed! HUH?)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...Let's stop right here for a second, it didn't occur to her to at least show the manager what she found. Filiing a claim was an after-thought? Did it leave a bad taste in her mouth? 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.

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 (finger 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. (the origin of the finger, hmm, probably came from the first cave woman that had PMS.)



Wendy's maintains the finger did not enter the food chain in its ingredients.(I guess we won't be seeing Dave pushing Wendy's new hot and spicey 'Finger Sandwhiches' any time soon!) 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.
Good! I love happy ending's.

Cops Nab Woman, Say Wendy's Finger a Hoax

11 minutes ago



By KIM CURTIS, Associated Press Writer

SAN JOSE, Calif. - 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.



Police Arrest Woman Who Reported Finger in Chili



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.

Turtlette, you won't be seeing Dave pushing anything, anywhere, again--given that he is dead.

Wait, this seems contradictory





Two separate charges?

The first one is what I've been wondering about. I like Wendy's, as a do-gooder Ohio-based institution whose headquarters I regularly drive by if nothing else.

I'm guessing that Ayala has always needed money and always felt that she deserved money and always reckoned that other people and/or large corporations had more than their share of money.

For her Wendy's may have been upscale dining.

Yeah, those are two separate and unrelated charges, connected only in that the warrants for both were served concurrently with Ayala's arrest in the Wendy's case. The girl's bought herself some major inconvenience, and her history of questionable commercial dealin's and financially-oriented litigations ain't gonna serve her at all well in the issues she now confronts.

My former employer grew up in Upper Arlington, Ohio. He went to school with Wendy Thomas. To them, Dave was just another of the dads, but still a special one. They would go over to the Thomas house after school, and Dave would fix cold drinks and sammiches for all the kids, because he enjoyed it so much. It appears from my former Boss' testimony that Dave was the nice guy they made him out to be in the commericals.

Wendy's is the best of the "big three" fast food places (in my opinion), and I think that's a direct reflection of its founder, Dave, who was a little more interested in the quality of the food, rather than the efficiency of its production. (all just my opinion)

I hope they throw the book at her.

The person who owns that particular Wendy's franchise could be ruined by this and lose his business and livlihood. And even if he doesn't, the corporation will lose millions through no fault of their own.

U.S. National - AP


Woman in Wendy's Case Waives Extradition




By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA, Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS - The woman who was arrested after claiming she bit into a human finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili waived extradition Tuesday, telling a judge she was eager to return to California to face charges.


Finger in Chili Still Under Investigation


Anna Ayala, 39, appeared before the same judge who issued a warrant for police to search her home outside Las Vegas on April 6. Records from that raid are sealed.

Outside court, Ayala's lawyer, Frederick Tait Ehler of San Jose, derided charges against his client as baseless.

"Anna says they're ridiculous," Ehler said of the charges of attempted grand larceny. "She's eager to go back to San Jose."

Ayala was arrested late Thursday, and San Jose police on Friday called her claim a hoax. Authorities said the attempted grand theft charge relates to millions in dollars of financial losses Wendy's has suffered since news broke of her claim.

Ayala maintains she bit down on a 1 1/2 inch-long finger fragment while dining March 22 with her family at a Wendy's in San Jose. She has denied placing the digit in her bowl.

She hired a lawyer and filed a claim against the franchise owner, but dropped the legal fight shortly after police searched her home.

Ayala, who has maintained her innocence, faces a maximum seven-year sentence if convicted of the larceny charges, and at least another 16 months if convicted of unrelated charges that she allegedly bilked a woman $11,000 over a soured real estate deal two years ago.

Ayala has been involved in nearly a dozen legal battles, including a sexual harassment suit against an employer, an auto dealer over a car and even another fast-food chain for food poisoning.

Authorities have not yet identified who the finger belonged to or Ayala's connection to it.

A person with knowledge about the case who spoke on condition of anonymity said the finger charge stemmed from San Jose police interviews with people who said Ayala described putting a finger in the chili, statements bolstered by authorities announcing last week that it did not appear the finger had been simmering in chili.

The company maintains that the finger did not enter the food chain in its ingredients. Employees at the San Jose franchise have all their fingers, and no suppliers of Wendy's ingredients reported any hand or finger injuries, the company said.

Wendy's, based at Dublin, Ohio, is offering $100,000 for information leading to the origin of the finger.

AP
N.C. Man Finds Finger in Frozen Custard


WILMINGTON, N.C. - A man who ordered a pint of frozen chocolate custard in a dessert shop got a nasty surprise inside ?- a piece of severed finger lost by an employee in an accident.


Unlike a recent incident at a Wendy's restaurant in California, no questions of truth have been raised about the finger found in a package from Kohl's Frozen Custard.

State officials went to the shop Monday, and the owner confirmed one of his employees lost part of a finger in an accident with a food-processing machine.

Wilmington television station WWAY reported that Clarence Stowers found the finger in custard he purchased Sunday night.

Stowers, who did not immediately return calls Monday from The Associated Press, told the station: "I thought it was candy because they put candy in your ice cream ... to make it a treat. So I said, 'OK, well, I'll just put it in my mouth and get the ice cream off of it and see what it is.'"

Stowers said he spit the object out, but still couldn't identify it. So he went to his kitchen, rinsed it off with water ?- and "just started screaming."

Stowers said he planned to contact a lawyer.

Shop owner Craig Thomas said the employee who lost the finger had dropped a bucket while working with a machine that dispenses the custard. He tried to catch the bucket when the accident occurred.

Thomas told WWAY that several employees tried to help the injured worker, and that a drive-thru window attendant apparently scooped custard from the bucket into a pint before being told what had happened.

Joe Reardon of the state Agriculture Department's food and drug division said state officials closed the shop while the food-processing equipment involved was cleaned and sanitized.

In March, a Las Vegas woman claimed she bit down on a 1 1/2 inch-long finger fragment while dining with her family at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, Calif.

Investigators have since called her claim a hoax and charged her last month with attempted grand theft related to millions in dollars of financial losses Wendy's has suffered since news of her claim broke.

I know!!

This one just screams copycat but seems to be real -- more real than the Wendy's one.

Weeeeeeeeeiiiird...!!!

I agree. The employer admitted and employee lost part of a singer so it's not a copycat situation. Weird image forms in your mind of a horde of fingers floating around waiting to be gobbled up.