WEBVTT - The Great Finger in the Wendy’s Chili Caper 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.600 dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.440 and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry and 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.880 this is the Stuff you Should Know Chili Caper Edition 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:27.159 Corporate Investigations, Las Vegas, saying Jose Chili Yeah, and that 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:31.920 means we get to use our special investigator nicknames Seattle Clark, Portland, 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:36.360 Bryant and San Francisco Jerry Rowland. That's not bad. I 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.360 would have chosen Tawny kitay In for me. Yeah. That 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:44.360 was a very ham fisted way to set up an 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.320 in show mention of our three shows next week. Oh yeah, next, 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:52.440 it's actually lost on me, Chuck next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.920 It's apparently lost on the Pacific Northwest because no one's 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.040 coming next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We will be in Seattle, 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:03.200 Portland and in Francisco on January sixteen and seventeen at 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.840 the More Theater, Revolution Hall and the Castro for Sketch Fest. 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.400 And uh, you have a Into the World live Friday 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.600 night in San Francisco, and I have a movie Crush 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.280 live on Saturday afternoon in San Francisco. I also have 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.480 a Brooklyn End of the World one two on the 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:22.080 twenty four, just f y. I. Hey, let's not get 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.560 carried away here, all right, But those are the shows 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.039 we have coming up everyone, so uh, come on out. 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.720 There's still great tickets left at all three of these venues, 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.480 uh and all five probably I don't I'm not sold 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:38.959 out for movie crushing so uh and especially those uh 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.000 into the world of movie crush shows your best chance 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.520 to hang out and talk to us personally, because they 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:47.800 are more intimate venues, like I wear a neglige Well, 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:49.840 Busy Phillips is there, so I'm gonna have on my 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.080 my dinner jacket. Oh very nice, trying to impress her 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:57.680 with my tuxedo, which is not impressive. Tuxedo and jeans 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:00.840 is a it's a it's a look. So get all 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.760 the information at s Y s k live dot com 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.160 or for the sketch Fest shows. Just go to the 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.760 s F Sketch Fest site and come out and support 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:12.839 us everyone and shake our hand, pat us on the back, 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:16.640 or spit on our shoes. Don't do that. Don't do that, 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:19.520 spit between our shoes. Just make it close. You know, 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:22.800 if you really hate us spit between our shoes. There 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.760 you go, that's gonna end up on a T shirt. 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.120 I have a feeling. All right, let's talk about chili fingers, 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:32.560 all right. So, um back in two thousand five. Actually 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:34.560 it's getting the way back machine. Go watch this thing, 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:39.640 go down way back machine just for this short distance. Yeah, 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:41.360 I mean, it's not like we can walk to two 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:49.679 thousand five. This is actually kind of great, though, because 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:55.280 when you're forty eight, almost to go back thirteen years, 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.560 I want to go back and do it all over. 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:01.880 So all of a sudden, I'm thirty five, which I 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.600 thought was old. Yeah, but man, I'd love to be 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:08.120 thirty five right now. I'm pretty happy with forty two. 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.160 I've got to say, I'm not quite I'm not quite 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:13.880 happy with the kind of catchers mit that my face 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.959 is turning into. But everything else I'm pretty glad about. Yeah. 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:23.440 Just wait, just wait, Okay, you're staring down the barrel 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.840 of fifty and you're going, geez, I only got like 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.200 fifteen more good years left. That's so not true. Don't 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.680 you know? Fifties the new thirty five? Is it? Do 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:36.320 you know what's funny is all the people in this 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:38.720 Windy's in San Jose. We just showed up at her. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:40.880 Looking at it's like, what are these guys talking about? 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.360 I know they're like, get your superbar order underway. Yeah, 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:46.240 they're like, why don't you guys just be quiet and 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.440 listen to chumbawamba like everybody else's right now. I don't 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.200 think they had superbar in two thousand five. That was 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.040 more like the eighties and nineties. But still, what was it? Superbar? Yeah, 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.920 don't you don't remember that? No, Windy's in the eighties. 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:02.160 Oh yeah, the superbar, which was this weird combination of 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:06.400 tacos and pasta and salad and baked potatoes and baked 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:10.040 potatoes all just like whatever you want. I forgot all 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.600 about that, man, what a good idea. Yeah, the superbar 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.440 was a weird, weird thing, but I ate it. So 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.400 there is no superbar anymore. But there is. If you 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:22.359 look over, there's a woman named Anna or Anna Ayala, 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.880 and she is sitting with her in laws, her her 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:28.800 mother in law, her father in law, a brother in law, 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.240 maybe a couple other people, um, and she is about 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.919 to bite down into a bite of Wendy's chili that 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:40.360 she has just ordered at the San Jose Um Wendy's 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:45.600 downtown San Jose. Wendy's I believe March two, two thousand five. Yeah, 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:50.240 she's in her her late thirties. It's cold in San Jose. 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:53.640 She's from Las Vegas, so she's not used to this. 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.760 She's actually so she's from San Jose originally, but she's 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:58.880 moved to Vegas a couple of years ago. For she 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.800 has lived in Law Vegas lately and has been warming 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:05.039 in the sun there, and uh, it's like, I don't 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.440 like this cold. I'm gonna order some chili because Wendy's 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.680 chili is so so good. It's meaty and warm as 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.600 it puts it. That's right. And so she sits down, 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.640 she's eating this thing, and then all of a sudden, 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:22.279 look at her. She's just she's she's upset, Josh, she's 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:25.120 gone berserk. Everybody at the tables get their hands up, 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.360 like WHOA settled down, and she's like just pointed at 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:32.440 her chili, her chili cup, which she's reached the bottom of, 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:36.640 and she's saying that there's a finger in her chili 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:40.080 because she's just bit into a finger. Yeah, she looks 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.880 like she's about to puke. Um. I didn't see her vomit. 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:46.920 I didn't either, but in court later she would say 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.040 she did, so maybe we can be key witnesses. Right, 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.240 she's going up to the counter demanding I think she 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.520 just said to one of the cashiers, who did you 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:58.680 kill to get this finger? Which is a weird thing 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:00.839 to say. Yeah, she's yelling. Then everyone else in the 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.760 restaurant with chili saying, don't eat that fingers. That's finger chili. 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:08.680 That's right, finger chili no one wants. She's starting to 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:11.200 try to start a chant, I believe. And there's only 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.359 one guy that's still eating. And he said, yeah, I 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.080 ordered the finger chili, right, He said, I think you 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.800 got mine. So she's freaking out. Things are starting to 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.839 go down. There's a hubbub in the restaurant. Everyone's got 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.880 every She has everyone's attention. She's saying that she just 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.560 found a finger in her chili. The people at the 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:30.840 counter are incredulous. They're kind of poking at it a 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.120 little bit. They're saying, I think it's a vegetable or whatever. 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.479 It looks like a carrot to me, lady, right, A 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.479 very pale carrot with a fingernail on it, and it's 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.719 the fingernail really that does the trick. After this point, 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.640 it becomes clear to everyone in the Wendy's that there 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.119 is a finger that this woman just found in her chili. 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.000 There's a fingernail on it. It's about an inch and 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.840 a half of a finger from the tip to well 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.720 about an inch and a half down and she just 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.039 bit down on it and she found it in her chili. 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:01.160 So the Wendy's employees reacts with they dump out all 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:05.839 the chili, they call, they call the police. The police 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:07.960 come by and they say, well, this is a health 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.280 department kind of thing, really, And the police leave, and 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:16.040 the Wendy's employees called the owners of the franchise, J. E. M. Management, 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:18.800 and they say, don't do anything that finger. Put it 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:20.960 in the freezer and we'll be there in the morning. 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.920 And at this point, Anna Leah leaves or Anna Ayala. 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:27.480 This is going to be very difficult, because I want 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.480 to say Elia, she leaves, Her families are taking her 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:34.560 family members are taking pictures of the location, and a 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:39.440 huge national story has just begun. By ten o'clock that night. 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.679 This happened about seven. By ten o'clock on the local news, 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.120 there's an unconfirmed report of a woman who found a 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:50.240 finger in her chili at Wendy's, and Dave Thomas gets 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.760 indigestion immediately. Well, he'd been dead a few years, so 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.560 that'd be phenomenal. I thought he was alive. Then he 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.400 died in two thousand two. Okay, Well he's rolling over 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.040 in his grave. But by this time, you know, he'd 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.520 really kind of made Wendy's like a really loved and respected, 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:10.240 you know, restaurant, because everybody thought Dave Thomas was so great. Well, yeah, 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.960 and as are we out of the way back machine? 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.480 Are we done? Play acting? I was serious, but yes 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:20.120 we are. Well you were seriously play acting. You were 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.880 Laurence Olivier. Maybe I was delusional. I thought we were 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:29.160 in that one. Okay, so uh immediate, almost immediately, words 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.520 starts to spread on the news. Obviously, and as you 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:37.880 might well imagine the Windy's restaurant chain, especially in the 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:42.359 in the area in the Bay area near San Jose, um, 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.640 it really starts to take a business hit. As you 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.560 would imagine, people are not like, oh, they found a 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.920 finger in some Wendy's chili. That really reminds me how 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.679 much I love Wendy's chili, Right, let's go out and 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.439 get a hot cup, because they are sort of famous 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.200 for their chili. Oh yeah. I mean, like, if you 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.560 want chili at a fast food restaurant, you're going to 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:05.760 Wendy's because you're not gonna find it anywhere else. They 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.480 really planted their flag on the chili market. Yeah, the 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:12.600 old an W's had pretty good chili. Oh yeah, but 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:16.160 you wanted that on a dog. Sure. And and of 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:20.079 course the Midwest still very famous for their skyline chili, 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:23.880 which is delicious. Is that I guess i'd be fast food? 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:28.560 Huh yeah, I think they actually have skyline chili restaurants. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.200 which is good. It's quite good. It is. Um. But 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:34.720 if you're going to go just about anywhere in the 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:36.800 US you have a hankering for chili, you're gonna go 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.760 to Wendy's. But, like you said, sales started to plummet, 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.160 and not just like chili sales, all wendy sales started 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:44.920 to take it hit, especially in the Bay Area, like 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.920 you said, especially in in the Western United States. People 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.600 were just kind of grossed out by this whole idea. Um. 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.800 But like I said, the the the cops had shown 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.160 up and decided it was a health inspectors or a 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.880 health departments jam. They didn't really have anything to do 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.040 with it. So the next morning, uh, the owners of 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:08.920 the franchise, the county health inspector, they showed up, I 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:13.000 think they contacted Wendy's communications department, and the gears were 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.720 starting to move. There was something that they had to 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:20.440 deal with, and that was basically threefold. It was really 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.920 twofold as far as Wendy's was concerned at first, but 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.400 the third one crept in pretty quickly. Whose finger was this? 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.120 How did the finger get into the chili? And then 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.320 after that who was this woman who who found the 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.680 finger in her chili? And so Wendy's really started to 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:43.640 focus on the first two because um one thing that 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.199 this whole the way that this whole thing played out, 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.400 the cops were very hands off at first. They felt 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:52.760 this was a health department issue, a public health issue, 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.160 and not a police issue, and basically said you need 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.960 to go figure this out yourself Wendy's and so Wendy's 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:01.120 had to do a lot of extra leg work that 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.160 they probably wouldn't have had to do had the cops 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.920 decided immediately that it was a criminal issue. But in 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.560 the cops defense, it didn't appear immediately to be a 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:12.960 criminal issue. It appeared to be like a woman found 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.400 a finger in her chili at Wendy's and that's gross, 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:19.040 so go figure it out Wendy's. Yeah. I also bet 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.800 there was like one guy who literally ate went to 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.160 that specific Wendy's to get chili the next day and 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:27.160 was like, dude, that's the last place you're going to 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.040 find a finger in your chili. Now, there's no way 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:32.440 it would happen again. What are the chances. Yeah, like 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.560 flying on an airline right after they have a crash. 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:38.120 He's like, you go to Burger King, you're gonna get 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.640 a finger. They're gonna purposely give you a finger. Man, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.880 don't be naive. Al Right, So did you introduce police 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.080 Chief Rob Davis? Yet? Not yet? All right, So this 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:51.520 is the guy San Jose police chief that would ultimately 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.880 lead this investigation later on, though after Wendy's did a 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.560 lot of the initial legwork for him. Yes, he would 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:04.400 lead the investigation, and he uh he. Basically it was like, 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:06.720 I gotta find out who this lady is because Wendy's 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.760 they're operating on the downlow here. Uh. And this this 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.400 is a sort of a and apparently this is this 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.840 case is taught in classes now about like how to 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.760 handle a crisis as a corporation. Yeah, I've seen I've 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.360 seen it criticized. I've also seen it held up as 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:25.880 a as an example of what to do too well. 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.480 I mean, here's what Wendy's can and can't do. What 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.520 they can do is quietly throw a lot of money 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:36.079 at this investigation on their own, uh, and then publicly. 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:38.320 What they can't do is is start to go after 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:44.120 this lady and be too sort of um dismissive of 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.200 this finger like there's no way, lady, this lady's nuts, 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:50.000 she's whatever, she's after money, Like, you can't do that 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.320 as a public facing company. You have to be doing 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:55.840 all your due diligence sort of quietly. And they really were, 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.280 They really were. So how how about this, dude, Let's 0:12:58.280 --> 0:12:59.800 take a break and then we'll come back and we'll 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:32.480 talk about the investigation that Wendy started. How about that? Chuck? Alright, Chuck, So, 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:35.560 like you said, Wendy's can't just be like that lady's 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.520 a liar. There's no way, that's our finger. Um. They 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.480 had to basically operate in the background. They couldn't appear 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.440 like they were obstructing the police investigation. They couldn't appear 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:49.640 like they were smearing uh Anna ayala, especially because the 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.800 early reports were very sympathetic to this woman too. Everybody's 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:55.679 very grossed out by this sure. Um. But at the 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:57.720 same time, they had they had to deal with this issue, 0:13:57.760 --> 0:13:59.520 and they had to get to the bottom of whose 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:03.080 finger was and where the finger came from. Yeah, And 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.920 so the obvious first place to start is the restaurant itself. Uh, 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.680 the employees there. The very obvious first place to start 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.160 is to see if anyone was missing a finger. And 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.280 that's what they did. They said, show us your hands. Yeah, 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.760 everyone looked at the everyone's fingers. They were all there, 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.280 and they went all right, so far, so good. Uh. 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:25.160 They would eventually put everyone on staff through a polygraph 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:30.120 test um, which they all passed. Uh. They would obviously 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:32.760 then they would go to up the supply chain to 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:35.280 see if this thing might have because you know, these 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:39.160 things happen, um, yeah, rarely they do. Though. Well, I 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.440 found five other cases of fingers in fast food that 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.920 were that were legitimate. Oh yeah, so it happens up 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:49.160 to supply chain. You know, there can be an industrial 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.600 accident that leaves a finger in a bag of lettuce, 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.640 greens or something, and that might eventually find its way 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.960 to a Windy's superbar. Oh my god, you know, doesn't 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.840 have been much. I don't I wouldn't be too freaked out. 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.400 I'm still freaked out. Well, we'll go over those at 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:10.120 the end. But they're going up the supply chain. They're 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.920 really doing their due diligence. They can't find. They offer 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:17.600 a reward at first of fifty grand, later a hundred grand. Well, 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.760 they set up yeah hotline for tips. But they're they're basically, 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.120 as time is going on, becoming more and more confident 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.120 that they did not have a finger in that chili, 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.840 right by their own fault. They traced the chili ingredients 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.000 to seven different suppliers, and they got documentation from all 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:39.200 seven suppliers that nobody at their companies had suffered any 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.960 kind of finger injury at any any recent time. And also, 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.120 like you said, doing at the store, doing at any 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:48.960 of the nearby stores had suffered any finger injury, let 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:53.520 alone in amputation. Um. And so Wendy's was like, this, 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:55.880 this didn't come from us, This didn't come from inside 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.600 our store. Um. And they also they kind of ran 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:04.160 a simultaneous forensic investigation as well. They hired a woman 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.960 named Dr Lynn Bates who's the CEO of a company 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.720 called Alteca out of Manhattan, Kansas. And if you are 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:16.320 looking for um evidence or study of a body part 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.640 that was found in food, you go to Dr Lynn S. 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:24.000 Bates and Alteca because they are they engage in forensic 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.800 food microscopy. That's what they do, is there. That's their 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.880 bread and butter is fine. Is is studying body parts 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:34.080 found in food, and she's been doing it since nineteen six. 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.760 So Wendy's went to her and said, here is a 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.760 piece of this finger. Was this finger cooked in this chili? 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.200 Whose finger is it? She's like, I can't tell you 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:44.320 whose finger it is, but I can't tell you that 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:48.080 there is no indication that this finger was cooked for 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:51.200 three hours in chili at a hundred and seventy degrees. 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.640 It just wasn't. So that was a that combined with 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:59.240 the the Wendy's No Wendy's employer or suppliers employers missing 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.000 a finger that told Wendy's everything they need to know 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.520 that they were being defrauded. Yeah, and you would think, 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.520 just grab a fingerprint, police force. Uh, And then they 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:11.719 weren't able to. They weren't able to. They said, if 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:14.840 they have found a hand, that they might could literally 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:18.720 look and compare fingerprints, but they they didn't get a 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:22.119 good enough print off it to uh to do a 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.720 legitimate database search, right right, They just had to sit 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:27.920 around and wait for that hand to show up. Because 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:29.919 that thing had been cooking in chili for three hours. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.800 It had not been cooked in chili for three hours 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:37.960 at any rate. Um, So Wendy's knew what was going on. 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:40.640 Now they had to go to the cops and say, 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.520 we're being defrauded. Not only did they have the search 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.800 for the missing finger investigation internally, and they hired Lynn 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:51.960 Bates to to do forensic work on the finger itself, 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:56.440 they also hired a detective to start looking around it 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:01.040 Anna Ayala, and the detective turned up some very interesting 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.480 stuff about her. Yeah, he was like, wait a minute, 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.560 this woman has filed at least thirteen civil lawsuits, some 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:11.679 against major corporations, and they he probably could have stopped 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.280 there and Wendy's would have just been like Dave Thomas 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:20.080 from the grave would have said, see there, she's no good. 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.359 That's a that's a good Dave Thomas. So that I 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.480 think he would have said, like she should still get 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.040 the benefit of the doubt. I don't know, man, when 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.760 you've when someone is this uh as a pattern of 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.440 litigious behaviors like this, Well maybe he finished with proved 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:39.320 me wrong one. There were a couple of notable ones. 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:43.679 Um that it's it's sort of uh, frustratingly hard to 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:48.160 find information. Um. She claimed that she won a thirty 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.760 thousand dollar settlement from Elpolo Loco from medical bills from 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.320 her daughter getting sick from salmonella. Elpolio Loco has always 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:57.920 been on record saying never happened. We did not give 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:02.199 that lady a dime GM. She sued GM because the 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.760 front wheel of her her car came off and there 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.480 was an accident, and uh, that suit was dismissed with 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:13.080 prejudice when she fired her lawyer was a no show 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.920 in court. Oh is that what that means? No? No, 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:19.840 no with prejudice means you can't bring it back. Okay, 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.680 so you can't. She can't say well, like, well, I 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:24.720 didn't show up and my lawyer was bad, so let's 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:28.159 do this again. Okay, I got you. So basically it 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.920 was dead in the water. So she sued a former 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.119 employer for her sexual harassment. I'm not even gonna comment 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:36.520 on that one because I have no idea that could 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:38.919 very well have been legitimate if that one struck me 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:43.919 as possibly legitimate. But she dropped it right. She lawyered 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:49.040 up immediately with the chilly finger, and everything made Chief 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:53.440 Rob Davis very suspicious. Uh. And then this this guy 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:58.399 that lived with her family named Ken Bono or Bano. 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.200 What did you say? No, I've been saying. Bono hasn't 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.480 even occurred to me. It could be Bono related to 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.640 Bono Kim Bono. Because the cops are starting to ask 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.320 questions at this point, they do official investigations, they search 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:14.960 her house. She claims that they held a gun to 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:20.600 her head, ransacked her home, and like abused her daughter. Yeah, 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:24.600 it's quite a charge for a finger chili house investigation. 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:27.080 There's a picture of her and her daughter in the 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.679 driveway talking to a reporter and her daughter's got like 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:31.760 her arm in a sling, but like the kind of 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:35.000 sling you just go by at the at the drug store. 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.160 So this was a guy who lived Bono, lived with 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:44.280 their family, and when he's being investigated by the cops, uh, 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:48.920 he said that this finger came from our aunt. Are 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:53.520 are deceased aunt. It's her finger, all right, which is 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.480 a weird thing to say, especially because Anna I alas 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.159 said all of my ants are alive. I don't know 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:00.879 what this guy's talking about, even though he lives in 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:03.879 my house. Yeah, what was was he trying to get money? 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:06.679 I don't know what. I can't figure out. I couldn't 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.520 find much on that guy. Um, I don't know what 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:12.840 the deal was. I also just saw references to a 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:15.520 rumor that the media had been reporting on that it 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.480 was her dead aunt's finger. So, um, I didn't see 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:20.399 how it came from him or what he was trying 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:23.120 to do with that. But that's that was the thing. 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:25.159 But that was just kind of like a little side 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:27.760 thread that I think also made the cops a little 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.240 more suspicious to like, that's just a weird thing to say, 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.600 even jokingly. Yeah, but they did actually get While it 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:36.280 didn't lead to the who finger it was, that tipline 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:38.959 did yield some stuff at first. Right. So yeah, So, 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:41.960 like you said, Wendy set up a tipline, a hotline 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:43.760 that you could call in, and what they were looking 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.800 for specifically ostensibly was whose finger it was. That's what 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.840 they wanted information the owner of the finger. UM. But 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:53.600 they were taking any and all tips that people called in, 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:57.199 and they started offering fifty grand like you said, they 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:00.240 later up to to a hundred grand um and it 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.080 started to yield some tips, like pretty pretty much off 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.240 the bat. I think the San Jose Police and Wendy's 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:09.280 is funneling this information to the cops um as it 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:11.879 comes in, like as good tips come in. UM. But 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:14.880 two very early on came in from what the San 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:18.840 Jose Police said. There were two different people who supposedly 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:21.640 did not know each other, who told very similar stories 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:25.359 about how Anna Iala had told them that she was 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.359 fleecing Wendy's, that all of this was just a fraud 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:31.440 for money to extort money from Wendy's in a lawsuit. 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:37.080 So that that combined with all the evidence that Wendy's 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:39.760 had gathered that it the finger had not come from 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:45.880 inside their store, UM, all of the Anna i Alla's background, uh, 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:49.199 all of that put together really turned the tide not 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:52.480 just on a police investigation, but also on the media 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:57.480 against Anna Iala. And she had started this, she had 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.080