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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, happy Saturday morning or whenever this finds you.

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Speaker 1: Chuck here introducing this week's Selects episode, and we're gonna

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Speaker 1: replay the great Finger in the Wendy's Chili Caper episode

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Speaker 1: from January tenth, twenty nineteen. There was a finger found

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Speaker 1: in Wendy's chili, and this is that story, nuff said.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 3: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and

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Speaker 3: there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry And this

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Speaker 3: is the Stuff you Should Know. Chili Caper Edition Corporate Investigations,

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Speaker 3: Las Vegas, San Jose Chili.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that means we get to use our special

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Speaker 1: investigator nicknames Seattle Clark, Portland Bryant and San Francisco Jerry Rowland.

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Speaker 3: That's not bad. I would have chosen Tawny Katayan for me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: That was a very ham fisted way to set up

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Speaker 1: an inshow mention of our three shows next week.

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Speaker 3: Oh oh yeah, next, that's actually lost on me, Chuck Next.

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Speaker 2: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

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Speaker 1: It's apparently lost on the Pacific Northwest because no one's coming.

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Speaker 2: Next Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday.

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Speaker 1: We will be in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco on

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Speaker 1: January fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth at the More Theater, Revolution Hall,

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Speaker 1: and the Castro for Sketch Fest. And you have a

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Speaker 1: End of the World Live Friday night in San Francisco,

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Speaker 1: and I have a Movie Crush Live on Saturday afternoon

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Speaker 1: in San Francisco.

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Speaker 3: I also have a Brooklyn End of the World one

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Speaker 3: two on the twenty fourth.

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Speaker 1: Just FYI, Hey, let's not get carried away here, Okay,

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Speaker 1: all right, but those are the shows we have coming

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Speaker 1: up everyone, so come on out. There's still great tickets

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Speaker 1: left at all three of these venues and all five

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Speaker 1: probably I don't.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sold out for Movie Crush. So and especially

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Speaker 2: those End of the World of Movie.

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Speaker 1: Crush shows are your best chance to hang out and

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Speaker 1: talk to us personally because they are more intimate venues.

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Speaker 3: Like I wear a neglige.

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Speaker 2: Well, Busy Phillips is there, so I'm gonna have on

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Speaker 2: my dinner jacket.

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Speaker 3: Oh, very nice.

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Speaker 1: Trying to impress her with my tuxedo, right, she's not impressive.

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Speaker 3: Tuxedo and jeans is a it's a it's a look.

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Speaker 1: So get all the information at s ysk live dot

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Speaker 1: com or for the sketch Fest shows. Just go to

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Speaker 1: the s F sketch Fest site and come out and

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Speaker 1: support us everyone and shake our hand, pat us on

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Speaker 1: the back, or spit on our shoes.

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Speaker 2: Don't do that. Don't do that.

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Speaker 3: Spit between our shoes. Just make it close, you know.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, if you really hate us, spit between our shoes.

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Speaker 3: There you go. That's gonna end up on a T shirt.

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Speaker 3: I have a feeling. All right, let's talk about chili fingers,

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Speaker 3: all right, So back in two thousand and five. Actually,

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Speaker 3: let's getting the way back machine. Go watch this thing

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Speaker 3: go down.

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Speaker 2: Way Back machine just for this short distance.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's not like you can walk to

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Speaker 3: two thousand and five.

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Speaker 1: This is actually kind of great, though, because when you're

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Speaker 1: forty eight, almost to go back thirteen years, I want

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Speaker 1: to go back and do it all over. So all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm thirty five, which I thought was old. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but man, I'd love to be thirty five right now.

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Speaker 3: I'm pretty happy with forty two. I've got to say,

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Speaker 3: I'm not quite I'm not quite happy with the kind

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Speaker 3: of catcher's mitt that my face is turning into but

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Speaker 3: everything else I'm pretty glad about.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, just wait, just wait, Okay, it happens. Oh no,

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Speaker 1: you're staring down the barrel of fifty and you're going, geez,

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Speaker 1: I only got like fifteen more good years left.

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Speaker 3: Good. That is so not true, don't you know? Fifties

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Speaker 3: the new thirty five? Is it? Do you know what's

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Speaker 3: funny is all the people in this Wendy's in San Jose.

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Speaker 3: We just showed up at her looking at us, like,

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Speaker 3: what are these guys talking about?

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Speaker 2: I know they're like, get your superbar order underway.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they're like, why don't you guys just be quiet

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Speaker 3: and listen to chumbawamba like everybody else's right now.

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Speaker 1: I don't think they had super bar in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and five. That was more like the eighties and nineties.

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Speaker 1: But still, what was it? Superbar?

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Speaker 2: Yeah you don't remember that. No, Wendy's in the eighties.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the superbar, which was this weird combination of

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Speaker 1: tacos and pasta and salad and baked potatoes and baked

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Speaker 1: potatoes all just like whatever you want.

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Speaker 3: I forgot all about that, man, what a good idea.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the superbar was a weird, weird thing, but I

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Speaker 2: ate it.

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Speaker 3: So there is no superbar anymore, but there is if

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Speaker 3: you look over there. It was a woman named Anna

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Speaker 3: or Anna Ayala, and she is sitting with her in laws,

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Speaker 3: her her mother in law or father in law, are

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Speaker 3: brother in law, maybe a couple other people, and she

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Speaker 3: is about to bite down into a bite of Wendy's

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Speaker 3: Chili that she has just ordered at the San Jose

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Speaker 3: Wendy's downtown San Jose Wendy's, I believe on March twenty second,

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Speaker 3: two thousand and five.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, she's in her her late thirties. It's cold in

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Speaker 2: San Jose.

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Speaker 3: M hmm.

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Speaker 2: She's from Las Vegas, so she's not used to this.

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Speaker 3: She's actually so she's from San Jose originally, but she's

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Speaker 3: moved to Vegas a couple of years ago for well, sure.

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Speaker 1: She has lived in Las Vegas lately and has been

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Speaker 1: warming in the sun there, right, and Uh is like,

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Speaker 1: I don't like this cold. I'm gonna order some chili

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Speaker 1: because Wendy's chili is so so good.

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Speaker 3: That's meaty and warm, as Ed puts it.

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Speaker 1: That's right, And so she sits down she's eating this thing,

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Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, look at her.

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Speaker 2: She's just she's she's upset, Josh.

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Speaker 3: She's gone berserk. Everybody at the tables got their hands up,

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Speaker 3: like whoa, settle down, and she's like just pointed at

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Speaker 3: her chili, her chili cup she's reached the bottom of

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Speaker 3: and she's saying that there's a finger in her chili. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: she just bit into a finger.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, she looks like she's about to puke. I didn't

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Speaker 1: see her vomit. I didn't either, but in court later

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Speaker 1: she would say she did, so maybe we can be

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Speaker 1: key witnesses.

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Speaker 3: Right. She's going up to the counter demanding I think

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Speaker 3: she just said to one of the cashiers, who did

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Speaker 3: you kill to get this finger? Which is a weird

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Speaker 3: thing to say.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, she's yelling at everyone else in the restaurant with chili, saying,

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Speaker 1: don't eat that.

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Speaker 3: Yepre's fingers.

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Speaker 2: That's finger chili.

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Speaker 3: That's right, finger chili. No one wants chut chut cha.

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Speaker 3: She's starting to try to start a chant, I believe.

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Speaker 1: And there's only one guy that's still eating and he said, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I ordered the finger chili.

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Speaker 3: Right, They said, I think you got mine. So she's

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Speaker 3: freaking out things are starting to go down. There's a

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Speaker 3: hubbub in the restaurant. Everyone's got every She has everyone's attention.

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Speaker 3: She's saying that she just found a finger in her chili.

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Speaker 3: The people at the counter are incredulous. They're kind of

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Speaker 3: poking at it a little bit. They're saying, I think

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Speaker 3: it's a vegetable or whatever. It looks like a carrot

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Speaker 3: to me, lady, right, a very pale carrot with a

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Speaker 3: fingernail on it. And it's the fingernail really that does

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Speaker 3: the trick. After this point, it becomes clear to everyone

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Speaker 3: in the Wendy's that there is a finger that this

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Speaker 3: woman just found in her chili. There's a fingernail on it.

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Speaker 3: It's about an inch and a half a finger from

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Speaker 3: the tip to well about an inch and a half down,

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Speaker 3: and she just bit down on it and she found

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Speaker 3: it in her chili. So the Wendy's employees react swiftly.

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Speaker 3: They dump out all the chili. They call the police.

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Speaker 3: The police come by and they say, well, this is

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Speaker 3: a health department kind of thing, really, And the police leave,

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Speaker 3: and the Wendy's employees call the owners of the franchise,

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Speaker 3: JEM Management, and they say don't do anything of that finger.

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Speaker 3: Put it in the freezer, and we'll be there in

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Speaker 3: the morning. And at this point, Anna Alaya leaves or

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Speaker 3: Anna Ayala. This is going to be very difficult, because

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Speaker 3: I want to say Alaya, she leaves, Her families are

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Speaker 3: taking her family members taking pictures of the location, and

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Speaker 3: a huge national story has just begun. By ten o'clock

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Speaker 3: that night, this happened about seven. By ten o'clock on

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Speaker 3: the local news, there's an unconfirmed report of a woman

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Speaker 3: who found a finger in her chili at Wendy's.

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Speaker 2: And Dave Thomas gets indigestion immediately.

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Speaker 3: Well, he'd been dead a few years, so that'd be phenomenal.

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Speaker 2: I thought he was alive.

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Speaker 3: Then he died in two thousand and two.

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Speaker 2: Okay, well he's rolling over in his grave.

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Speaker 3: But by this time, you know, he'd really kind of

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Speaker 3: made Wendy's like a really loved and respected, you know, restaurant,

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Speaker 3: because everybody thought Dave Thomas was so great.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and as are we out of the way

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Speaker 2: back machine? Are we done? Play acting?

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Speaker 3: I was serious, but yes we are.

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Speaker 2: Well you were seriously play acting. You were Laurence Olivier.

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Speaker 3: Maybe I was delusional. I thought we were in that one.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So.

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Speaker 1: Almost immediately word starts to spread on the news. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: and as you might well imagine, the Windy's restaurant chain,

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Speaker 1: especially in the area in the Bay Area near San Jose,

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Speaker 1: it really starts to take a business hit. As you

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Speaker 1: would imagine, people are not like, oh, they found a

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Speaker 1: finger in some Wendy's chili. That really reminds me how

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Speaker 1: much I love Wendy's chili. Right, let's go out and

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Speaker 1: get a hot cup, right, because they are sort of

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Speaker 1: famous for their chili.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah. I mean, like, if you want chili at

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Speaker 3: a fast food restaurant, you're going to Wendy's because you're

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Speaker 3: not going to find it anywhere else. They really planted

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Speaker 3: their flag and the chili market.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the old an W's had pretty good chili.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, but you wanted that on a dog.

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Speaker 1: Sure, And of course the Midwest still very famous for

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Speaker 1: their skyline chili.

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Speaker 2: Mm hm, which is delicious?

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Speaker 3: Is that? I guess that'd be fast food?

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Speaker 2: Huh yeah, I think they actually have skyline chili restaurants.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, which is good. It's quite good, it is.

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Speaker 3: But if you're going to go just about anywhere in

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Speaker 3: the US, if you have a hankering for chili, you're

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Speaker 3: gonna go to Wendy's. But like you said, sales started

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Speaker 3: to plummet, and not just like chili sales, all wendy

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Speaker 3: sales started to take it hit, especially in the Bay Area,

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Speaker 3: like you said, especially in the Western United States. People

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Speaker 3: were just kind of grossed out by this whole idea.

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Speaker 3: But like I said, the cops had shown up and

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Speaker 3: decided it was a health inspector's or a health department's jam.

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Speaker 3: They didn't really have anything to do with it. So

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Speaker 3: the next morning, the owners of the franchise, the county

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Speaker 3: health inspector, they showed up, I think they contacted Wendy's

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Speaker 3: communications department, and the gears were starting to move. There

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Speaker 3: was something that they had to deal with, and that

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Speaker 3: was basically threefold. It was really twofold as far as

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Speaker 3: Wendy's was concerned at first, but the third one crept

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Speaker 3: in pretty quickly. Whose finger was this? Sure, how did

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Speaker 3: the finger get into the chili?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: And then after that, who was this woman who found

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Speaker 3: the finger in her chili? And so Wendy's really started

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Speaker 3: to focus on the first two because one thing. This

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Speaker 3: whole the way that this whole thing played out, the

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Speaker 3: cops were very hands off at first. They felt this

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Speaker 3: was a health department issue, a public health issue, and

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Speaker 3: not a police issue, and basically said, you need to

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Speaker 3: go figure this out yourself Wendy's, And so Wendy's had

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Speaker 3: to do a lot of extra legwork that they probably

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Speaker 3: wouldn't have had to do had the cops decided immediately

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Speaker 3: that it was a criminal issue. But in the cops defense,

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Speaker 3: it didn't appear immediately to be a criminal issue. It

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Speaker 3: appeared to be like a woman found a finger in

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Speaker 3: her chili at Wendy's and that's gross, So go figure

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Speaker 3: it out Wendy's.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I also bet there was like one guy who literally

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Speaker 1: ate went to that specific Wendy's to get chili the

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Speaker 1: next day and was like, dude, that's the last place

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Speaker 1: you're going to find a finger in your chilli now, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's no way it would happen again.

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Speaker 2: What are the chances.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, like flying on an airline right after they have

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Speaker 3: a crash.

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Speaker 2: He's like, you go to Burger King, you're gonna get

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Speaker 2: a finger.

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Speaker 3: They're going to purposely give you a finger man, don't

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Speaker 3: be naive.

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Speaker 2: All right, So did you introduce police Chief Rob Davis yet?

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Speaker 2: Not yet? All right?

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Speaker 1: So this is the guy San Jose police chief that

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Speaker 1: would ultimately lead this investigation.

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Speaker 3: Later on, though after Wendy's did a lot of the

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Speaker 3: initial legwork for him.

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Speaker 1: Yes, he would lead the investigation. And he basically was like,

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Speaker 1: I got to find out who this lady is because

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Speaker 1: Wendy's they're operating on the downlow here and this is

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Speaker 1: a sort of a and apparently this is this case

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Speaker 1: is taught in classes now about like how to handle

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Speaker 1: a crisis as a corporation.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen I've seen it criticized. I've also seen

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Speaker 3: it held up as an example of what to do

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Speaker 3: too well.

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Speaker 1: I mean, here's what Wendy's can and can't do. What

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Speaker 1: they can do is quietly throw a lot of money

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Speaker 1: at this investigation on their own and then publicly. What

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Speaker 1: they can't do is start to go after this lady

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Speaker 1: and be too sort of dismissive of this finger like

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Speaker 1: there's no way, lady, this lady's nut, she's whatever, she's

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Speaker 1: after money, Like, you can't do that as a public

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Speaker 1: facing company. You have to be doing all your due

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Speaker 1: diligence sort of quietly, and they really were, They really were.

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Speaker 3: So how about this, dude, Let's take a break and

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Speaker 3: then we'll come back and we'll talk about the investigation

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Speaker 3: that Wendy started. How about that? All right? All right, Chuck. So,

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Speaker 3: like you said, Wendy's can't just be like that, lady's

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Speaker 3: a liar. There's no way that's our finger. They had

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Speaker 3: to basically operate in the background. They couldn't appear like

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Speaker 3: they were obstructing the police investigation. They couldn't appear like

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Speaker 3: they were smearing ana Ayala, especially because the early reports

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Speaker 3: were very sympathetic to this woman too. Everybody was very

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Speaker 3: grossed out by this. Sure, but at the same time,

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Speaker 3: they had to deal with this issue, and they had

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Speaker 3: to get to the bottom of whose finger this was

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Speaker 3: and where the finger came from.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And so the obvious first place to start is

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Speaker 1: the restaurant itself, the employees there. The very obvious first

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Speaker 1: place to start is to see if anyone was missing

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Speaker 1: a finger.

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Speaker 3: Sure, and that's what they did. They said, show us

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Speaker 3: your hands.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, everyone looked at everyone's fingers. They were all there,

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Speaker 1: and they went all right, so far, so good. They

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Speaker 1: would eventually put everyone on staff through a polygraph test,

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Speaker 1: which they all passed. They would obviously then they would

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Speaker 1: go to the supply chain to see if this thing

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Speaker 1: might have because you know, these things happened.

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Speaker 3: Rarely.

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Speaker 2: They do though, Well, I found five other cases of

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Speaker 2: fingers in fast food.

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Speaker 1: That were legitimate. Oh yeah, oh wow, So it happens

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Speaker 1: up to supply chain. You know, there can be an

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Speaker 1: industrial accident that leaves a finger in a bag of lettuce,

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Speaker 1: greens or something, and that might eventually find its way

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Speaker 1: to a Wendy's superbar.

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Speaker 3: Oh my god.

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Speaker 2: You know it doesn't happen much, huh. I wouldn't be

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Speaker 2: too freaked out.

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Speaker 3: I'm still freaked out.

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Speaker 2: We'll go over.

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Speaker 1: Those at the end. But they're going up the supply chain.

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Speaker 1: They're really doing their due diligence. They can't find. They

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Speaker 1: offer a reward at first of fifty grand, later one

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Speaker 1: hundred grand.

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Speaker 3: Well, they set up, yeah, a hotline for tips.

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Speaker 1: But they're basically, as time is going on, becoming more

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Speaker 1: and more confident that they did not have a finger

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Speaker 1: in that chili by their own fault.

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Speaker 3: They traced the chill ingredients to seven different suppliers. And

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Speaker 3: they got documentation from all seven suppliers that nobody at

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Speaker 3: their companies had suffered any kind of finger injury at

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Speaker 3: any any recent time. And also, like you said, going

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Speaker 3: at the store, doing at any of the nearby stores

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Speaker 3: had suffered any finger injury, let alone an amputation. And

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Speaker 3: so Wendy's was like, this is this didn't come from us,

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Speaker 3: This didn't come from inside our store. And they also

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Speaker 3: they kind of ran a simultaneous forensic investigation as well.

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Speaker 3: They hired a woman named doctor Lynn Bates who's the

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Speaker 3: CEO of a company called Altecha out of Manhattan, Kansas.

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Speaker 3: And if you are looking for evidence or study of

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Speaker 3: a body part that was found in food, you go

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Speaker 3: to doctor Lynn S. Bates and Alteca because they are

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Speaker 3: they engage in forensic food microscopy. That's what they do,

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Speaker 3: is there. That's their bread and butter, is studying body

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Speaker 3: parts found food. And she'd been doing it since nineteen

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Speaker 3: eighty six. So Wendy's went to her and said, here's

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Speaker 3: a piece of this finger. Was this finger cooked in

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Speaker 3: this chili? Whose finger is it? She's like, I can't

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Speaker 3: tell you whose finger it is, but I can tell

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Speaker 3: you that there is no indication that this finger was

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Speaker 3: cooked for three hours in chili at one hundred and

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Speaker 3: seventy degrees. It just wasn't. So that was a that

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Speaker 3: combined with the Wendy's no Wendy's employer or supplier's employers

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Speaker 3: missing a finger, that told Wendy's everything they need to

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Speaker 3: know that they were being defrauded.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you would think, just grab a fingerprint police force,

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Speaker 1: and they weren't able to.

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Speaker 2: They weren't able to.

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Speaker 1: They said if they found a hand that they might

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Speaker 1: could literally look and compare fingerprints, but they they didn't

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Speaker 1: get a good enough print off it to do a

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Speaker 1: legitimate database.

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Speaker 3: Search, right right, They just had to sit around and

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Speaker 3: wait for that hand to show up.

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Speaker 2: Because that thing had been cooking in chili for three hours.

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Speaker 3: It had not cooked in chili for three hours at

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Speaker 3: any rate. So Wendy's knew what was going on. Now

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Speaker 3: they had to go to the cops and say, we're

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Speaker 3: being defrauded. Not only did they have the search for

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Speaker 3: the missing finger investigation internally, and they hired Lynn Bates

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Speaker 3: to do forensic work on the finger itself, they also

359
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Speaker 3: hired a detective to start looking around at Anna Ayala,

360
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Speaker 3: and the detective turned up some very interesting stuff about her.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he was like, wait a minute, this woman has

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Speaker 1: filed at least thirteen civil lawsuits, some against major corporations,

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Speaker 1: and they He probably could have stopped there, and Wendy's

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Speaker 1: would have just been like Dave Thomas from the grave

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Speaker 1: would have said, see there, she's no good.

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Speaker 3: That's a good Dave Thomas. So I think he would

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Speaker 3: have said, like, she should still get the benefit of

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Speaker 3: the doubt.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, man, when someone is this as a

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Speaker 1: pattern of litigious behaviors like this.

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Speaker 3: Well maybe he finished with proved me wrong one.

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Speaker 1: There were a couple of notable ones that it's sort

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Speaker 1: of frustratingly hard to find information. She claimed that she

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Speaker 1: won a thirty thousand dollars settlement from El Polio Loco

375
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Speaker 1: from medical bills from her daughter getting sick from Samonella.

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Speaker 1: Al Pollo Loco has always been on record saying never happened.

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Speaker 1: We did not give that lady a dime, right GM.

378
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Speaker 1: She sued GM because the front wheel of her car

379
00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:37,520
Speaker 1: came off and there was an accident, and that suit

380
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Speaker 1: was dismissed with prejudice. When she fired her lawyer was

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Speaker 1: a no show in court.

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Speaker 3: Oh is that what that means? No?

383
00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:46,800
Speaker 1: No, no with prejudice means you can't bring it back.

384
00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:51,520
Speaker 1: Oh okay, so you can't. She can't say, well, well

385
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Speaker 1: I didn't show up and my lawyer was bad, so let's.

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Speaker 2: Do this again.

387
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Speaker 3: Okay, I gotcha, I get so.

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Speaker 1: Basically it was dead in the water. So she suit

389
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Speaker 1: a former employer for her sexual harassment. I'm not even

390
00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:04,760
Speaker 1: going to comment on that one because I have no

391
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Speaker 1: idea that could very well have been legitimate.

392
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Speaker 3: That one struck me as possibly legitimate, but she dropped

393
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Speaker 3: it right.

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Speaker 1: She lawyered up immediately with a chili finger, and everything

395
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:22,320
Speaker 1: made Chief Rob Davis very suspicious. And then this guy

396
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Speaker 1: that lived with her family named Ken Bono or Bono?

397
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Speaker 2: Would you say Bono?

398
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:31,879
Speaker 3: I've been saying Bono hasn't even occurred to me. It

399
00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:36,159
Speaker 3: could be Bono. Ken Bono's related to Bono Ken Bono.

400
00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:38,359
Speaker 3: Because the cops are starting to ask questions. At this point,

401
00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:42,040
Speaker 3: they do official investigations, They search her house. She claims

402
00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:45,840
Speaker 3: that they held a gun to her head, ransacked her home,

403
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:50,960
Speaker 3: and like abused her daughter. Yeah, quite a charge for

404
00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:55,040
Speaker 3: a finger chili house investigation. There's a picture of her

405
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:57,520
Speaker 3: and her daughter in the driveway talking to a reporter,

406
00:20:57,600 --> 00:20:59,679
Speaker 3: and her daughter's got like her arm in a sling,

407
00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:02,360
Speaker 3: like the kindest thing you just go by at at

408
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Speaker 3: the drug store.

409
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Speaker 2: Yeah.

410
00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:08,120
Speaker 1: So this was a guy who lived Bono, lived with

411
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,680
Speaker 1: their family, and when he's being investigated by the cops,

412
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:17,960
Speaker 1: he said that this finger came from our aunt, our

413
00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:19,679
Speaker 1: deceased aunt.

414
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:23,240
Speaker 3: It's her finger, which is a weird thing to say,

415
00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:26,640
Speaker 3: especially because Anna, I all said, all of my aunts

416
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:29,000
Speaker 3: are alive. I don't know what this guy's talking about,

417
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:30,200
Speaker 3: even though he lives in my house.

418
00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:32,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, what was he? Was he trying to get money?

419
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:33,919
Speaker 3: I don't know what.

420
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:34,960
Speaker 2: I can't figure out.

421
00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 3: I couldn't find much on that guy. I don't know

422
00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:41,280
Speaker 3: what the deal was. I also just saw references to

423
00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,040
Speaker 3: a rumor that the media had been reporting on that

424
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:47,360
Speaker 3: it was her dead ant's finger. So I didn't see

425
00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:49,280
Speaker 3: how it came from him or what he was trying

426
00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:52,239
Speaker 3: to do with that. But that was a thing. But

427
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:54,439
Speaker 3: that was just kind of like a little side thread

428
00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 3: that I think also made the cops a little more

429
00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 3: suspicious too, Like that's just a weird thing to say,

430
00:21:59,240 --> 00:21:59,919
Speaker 3: even joking.

431
00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:02,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, but they did actually get While it didn't lead

432
00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:05,639
Speaker 1: to whose finger it was, that tip line did yield

433
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:06,800
Speaker 1: some stuff at first, right.

434
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:09,240
Speaker 3: So yeah, So, like you said, Wendy set up a

435
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:11,919
Speaker 3: tip line, a hotline that you could call in, and

436
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:16,000
Speaker 3: what they were looking for, specifically ostensibly was whose finger

437
00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:18,240
Speaker 3: it was. That's what they wanted information the owner of

438
00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:21,280
Speaker 3: the finger. But they were taking any and all tips

439
00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:25,320
Speaker 3: that people called in, and they started offering fifty grand,

440
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 3: like you said, they later up to one hundred grand,

441
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,760
Speaker 3: and it started to yield some tips, like pretty much

442
00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:34,639
Speaker 3: off the bat. I think the San Jose Police and

443
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:38,159
Speaker 3: Wendy's is funneling this information to the cops as it

444
00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:41,120
Speaker 3: comes in, like as good tips come in. But two

445
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:44,040
Speaker 3: very early on came in from what the San Jose

446
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:47,920
Speaker 3: Police said. There were two different people who supposedly did

447
00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:51,040
Speaker 3: not know each other, who told very similar stories about

448
00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 3: how Anna Ayala had told them that she was fleecing Wendy's,

449
00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:57,840
Speaker 3: that all of this was just a fraud for money

450
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:01,080
Speaker 3: to extort money from Wendy's and a lost suit. So

451
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:06,080
Speaker 3: that that combined with all the evidence that Wendy's had

452
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,639
Speaker 3: gathered that the finger had not come from inside their store.

453
00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 3: All of the on a Iowa's background, All of that

454
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:18,520
Speaker 3: put together really turned the tide not just on a

455
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:22,680
Speaker 3: police investigation, but also on the media against Anna Iola.

456
00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:27,640
Speaker 3: And she had started this, she had created a huge

457
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,040
Speaker 3: media circus around this issue. Like she went on Good

458
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:34,480
Speaker 3: Morning America and I could not find I think Good

459
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:36,280
Speaker 3: Morning America just took the video.

460
00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:39,000
Speaker 2: Down, probably just burned it because she just.

461
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:45,480
Speaker 3: Went on and lied, lied, lied through her teeth about

462
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:49,879
Speaker 3: what had happened, and just pointed at Wendy's and said, like,

463
00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:53,919
Speaker 3: these guys screwed up, and this is the most disgusting

464
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,520
Speaker 3: thing that could happen to somebody, And I'm torn up

465
00:23:56,560 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 3: inside about it, and they should pay on on national

466
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:02,640
Speaker 3: news about a week after the incident.

467
00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:05,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, like you said, this is all playing out

468
00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:08,280
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. It's all over the news, it's all over

469
00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:12,440
Speaker 1: late night talk show comedy, just bad joke after bad

470
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:15,040
Speaker 1: joke coming out of j Leno's mouth. I won't even

471
00:24:15,119 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 1: repeat the one that ed included.

472
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:18,800
Speaker 3: I like the letterman one. Did you see lettermans?

473
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:19,359
Speaker 2: What was it?

474
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:23,280
Speaker 3: He said that she been spotted going back at Wendy's

475
00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 3: and ordering chili again because she was going back to

476
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:26,640
Speaker 3: collect all five.

477
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 2: That's good.

478
00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, you gotta give it up for Letterman.

479
00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:31,919
Speaker 2: What was Leno's something about him?

480
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:36,359
Speaker 3: They don't. The chili now comes with fingernail clippers, the

481
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,400
Speaker 3: side of fingernail clippers, and.

482
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 1: That really just encapulates, encapsulates the difference between those two men.

483
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 3: It does, although they.

484
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:45,800
Speaker 2: Have their joke writers, but still the love.

485
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:48,600
Speaker 3: Of cars, I think is also a big differentiator. Yeh,

486
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:50,919
Speaker 3: I don't think Letterman really cares about cars.

487
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:52,920
Speaker 2: Shout out to Brian Kylie and Rob Kutner.

488
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:56,880
Speaker 3: Shout out to the mid nineties Letterman book of Top

489
00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:58,920
Speaker 3: ten lists that helped shape be as a human being.

490
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:04,199
Speaker 1: Brian and Rob are Conan O'Brien's monologue joke writers and

491
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:05,399
Speaker 1: have been for many many years.

492
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:07,040
Speaker 3: Did I tell you you? Me and I went to

493
00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:11,280
Speaker 3: see Conan O'Brien live with Ron Funches and a couple

494
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:15,359
Speaker 3: of other people. Now it was so good and we

495
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:17,560
Speaker 3: actually turned out we were stating we were sitting next

496
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,920
Speaker 3: to a member of the s YSK army throughout the show.

497
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 2: Oh no way.

498
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:22,639
Speaker 3: Yeah. He was like are you Josh? And you and

499
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:25,600
Speaker 3: me we were like, yeah, he was a good, good guy, good.

500
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:28,640
Speaker 1: Kids like, I'm u me, but that's not Josh right.

501
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,480
Speaker 1: He's like, well that's weird. I'm suspicious. Now all right,

502
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:35,240
Speaker 1: where were we? All right, it's all over the news.

503
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:39,680
Speaker 1: This is all playing out very fast. But the dragnet

504
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:44,840
Speaker 1: is sort of closing in thanks to Wendy's investigations, thanks

505
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:48,840
Speaker 1: to the cops getting involved, and uh, miss Ayala is

506
00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 1: starting to feel the heat and like anyone who And

507
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:53,880
Speaker 1: I think the cat's out of the back now, right.

508
00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,280
Speaker 2: I think it was put the finger in the chilly Yeah.

509
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:00,280
Speaker 1: Anytime someone does something like that, it seems like two

510
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,120
Speaker 1: things happen. They bragged to their friends because they're dummies

511
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 1: to begin with, and then that net starts to close

512
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:08,000
Speaker 1: and it all starts to fall apart.

513
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:12,680
Speaker 3: Right. So her response, and this is a pretty human response,

514
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:17,119
Speaker 3: she basically said, once the media spotlight went from sympathetic

515
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:19,200
Speaker 3: to her to wait a minute, who are you again?

516
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:21,280
Speaker 3: And how do you explain this thing and that thing

517
00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:22,960
Speaker 3: and all this, she.

518
00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:24,280
Speaker 2: Was like never mind.

519
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:26,879
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's basically what she said. She said, You know,

520
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,040
Speaker 3: I can't handle this media spotlight or anything anymore. So

521
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:32,520
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna drop my lawsuit against Wendy's. We'll just

522
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 3: forget all about this, And Wendy said, no, we're not

523
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 3: gonna just forget all about this. No, of course, let's

524
00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:57,400
Speaker 3: take a break, shall we. Yeah, we're gonna take a break.

525
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:17,359
Speaker 3: So I can't surely when Anna Iola was like, Okay,

526
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna drop the lawsuit and this will go away,

527
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,520
Speaker 3: there had to only have been maybe one and a

528
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 3: quarter percent of her brain that thought that that was

529
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:28,520
Speaker 3: actually going to work, that was actually going to go away.

530
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:32,119
Speaker 3: She seems like street wise and savvy enough to me

531
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:35,960
Speaker 3: that she knew it probably wasn't just going to go away,

532
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:40,080
Speaker 3: that that was nothing but hope, right, I guess I'm

533
00:27:40,119 --> 00:27:40,879
Speaker 3: curious about that.

534
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:44,639
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know, man, But like the more that

535
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: they poke into her private life, then you learn that

536
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:54,159
Speaker 1: she and her husband, James Placentia, had there was a

537
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:56,639
Speaker 1: and this one's hard to get information onto.

538
00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:57,480
Speaker 2: From what I can.

539
00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:02,119
Speaker 1: Tell, is they sold a trailer, a trailer park trailer

540
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 1: that did not belong to them.

541
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 3: Yes, for eleven thousand dollars. She did specifically, I don't

542
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:10,920
Speaker 3: know that he was involved. He may have even owned

543
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:15,159
Speaker 3: the trailer, but regardless, she did not own the trailers

544
00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 3: sold it to a woman for eleven thousand dollars, and

545
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 3: later on the woman and her children were evicted from

546
00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:24,440
Speaker 3: the trailer that they thought they owned that they didn't own.

547
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 1: Yes, they also learned that her husband, I guess from

548
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:32,399
Speaker 1: her previous marriage, owed a lot of money and child support.

549
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:35,639
Speaker 1: And so things are starting to fall into place to

550
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 1: where they're like, this lady is always making up stories

551
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:42,959
Speaker 1: and suing companies. She's always looking for that get rich angle.

552
00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 1: Her husband owes a ton of money four hundred k,

553
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:51,719
Speaker 1: and so this is all sorting. They're starting to finger her,

554
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 1: if you will, for this crime. That's the worst pun

555
00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 1: ever we met.

556
00:28:57,080 --> 00:28:58,560
Speaker 3: We all, I thought we were going to make it

557
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 3: through this, but no, I've even been saying tipline about

558
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 3: one finger ignoring it. I know you did, but okay,

559
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 3: all right, it's done. It's out there.

560
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 1: So they finally, like you said, even though she was like, oh,

561
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 1: let's just forget about it, they're like, no, no, no, we

562
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:17,280
Speaker 1: can't do that. And then there enters a lady that

563
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:19,400
Speaker 1: just kind of and it didn't end up having the

564
00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 1: hugest impact on the case itself, but it is worth

565
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 1: mentioning this woman named Sandy Almond. This is a little strange.

566
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:35,800
Speaker 1: So this is a woman who owned exotic cats, big cats, leopards, jaguars, tigers.

567
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:41,400
Speaker 3: I think, is that how we're saying jaguars now jaguar? Yeah?

568
00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 2: Wow, it's how the brit says it on the commercial.

569
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:45,480
Speaker 3: Is it the year in sales event up in here?

570
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Jaguar X twelve. So this lady owns these

571
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: big cats. This is not too far from Vegas where

572
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 1: she lives in parump Nevada, I guess, or is it

573
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:00,960
Speaker 1: CALIFORNI on the California side, you know, I think it's okay.

574
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:02,680
Speaker 3: I don't know actually know that you mentioned it.

575
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 1: And she eventually, I guess, has to get rid of

576
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,640
Speaker 1: these cats and calls in a rescue group that does

577
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 1: things like this. They're like, we're a wild animal orphanage

578
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 1: and you're a dumb dumb who bought all these animals

579
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:14,520
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have had, so now.

580
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 2: We will deal with it.

581
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:17,680
Speaker 1: And during this transfer of animals, she is attacked by

582
00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:23,120
Speaker 1: a spotted leopard and it bites off her finger. Yes,

583
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 1: and she says, she comes forward and says, I think

584
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 1: that is my finger.

585
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 3: No, No, I think Actually a person who is at

586
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:33,320
Speaker 3: the wildlife rescue at the time, was the one who

587
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:35,000
Speaker 3: called the tip line with that one.

588
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 2: Oh, I thought, because she wanted to take a DNA

589
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 2: test and everything.

590
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 3: Oh I didn't see that, Okay, all right, cool. So

591
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:42,480
Speaker 3: she's the one who called and said that's my finger.

592
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:44,920
Speaker 1: Well she wanted I don't know if she literally picked

593
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:46,920
Speaker 1: up the phone and called uh huh, but she got

594
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 1: involved such that she wanted to take a DNA test

595
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 1: to find out if that was her finger.

596
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,240
Speaker 3: Gotcha, Okay? Cool? Cool? Well, yeah, because she had said

597
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:56,320
Speaker 3: that the last time she'd seen it it was on

598
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:59,240
Speaker 3: ice in the emergency room. So I guess she wasn't

599
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 3: the sentimental ties hypoo's like I want my finger back,

600
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:02,480
Speaker 3: would you?

601
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, floated from aldehyde.

602
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 3: You me would probably have that thing gilded and wear

603
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:12,320
Speaker 3: it around her neck. Yeah, I'd be like, that's my

604
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:16,320
Speaker 3: finger on ubi's neck. Check it out. But so the

605
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:18,600
Speaker 3: whole thing was just a red herring though a blind

606
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 3: alley right, like it went nowhere.

607
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 2: No, it was not her finger.

608
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 3: No. There were some other tips that came in about

609
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:30,680
Speaker 3: the finger. There were the Mexican authorities, I guess just

610
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:34,160
Speaker 3: over the border got involved because it was rumored that

611
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:37,840
Speaker 3: an incident with a ranch hand losing a finger in

612
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 3: Mexico had been the source of the finger, as even

613
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:45,680
Speaker 3: as Anna Iola, who, by the way, that whole tip

614
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 3: about the trailer sail. Yeah, the trailer scam that came

615
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 3: in from Wendy's hotline as well. Oh really, by this time,

616
00:31:54,680 --> 00:32:00,280
Speaker 3: I believe it was day twenty two. No, I'm sorry,

617
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:04,320
Speaker 3: it was day thirty thirty two. I believe about a

618
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 3: month after the incident originally happened. Ana Ayala and Jamie

619
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 3: Palencia Plazentia, her husband, were both arrested in Las Vegas,

620
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:18,720
Speaker 3: him for the child support payments failure to pay child support,

621
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 3: her for that trailer scam. And so while they're on

622
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 3: ice in Las Vegas, Wendy's is still conducting this investigation.

623
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:30,080
Speaker 3: San Jose are still conducting this investigation, and they've got them,

624
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:32,760
Speaker 3: they have them on this other stuff. But I guess

625
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:34,720
Speaker 3: they just kind of kept them from running and that's

626
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 3: why they arrested them, knowing that they were eventually going

627
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:40,560
Speaker 3: to build the case. I'm not sure, but that's exactly

628
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 3: what happened, because I think about fifty two days after

629
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 3: she walked into that Wendy's and put the finger in

630
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 3: the chili and took that bite. They charged them for

631
00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:53,600
Speaker 3: grand theft, for basically defrauding Wendy's.

632
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:56,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, and at this point, as far as the police

633
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 1: were concerned, they're like, we don't even need to know

634
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: who's finger this is at this point, right, like that

635
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 1: that's really immaterial. But Wendy's they still have a public

636
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:10,480
Speaker 1: relations crisis going on, and they're like, we really would

637
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 1: like to find out where this finger came from, just

638
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 1: so like as many facts out there as possible will

639
00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: really help us restore our good name, right if we

640
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 1: can actually pinpoint whose finger this is and exactly how

641
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:25,960
Speaker 1: this happened and let everybody know what went on.

642
00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they they actually that's when they up the

643
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 3: the reward from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand, right,

644
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:36,320
Speaker 3: that's right, And that's when they hit the jackpot, which

645
00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:40,200
Speaker 3: is ironically, they got two callers on the one hundred

646
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 3: thousand dollars line.

647
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 2: Go ahead, collar, you're on the one hundred thousand dollars

648
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 2: chili finger line, right.

649
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 3: And then for the next thirty second he's like, hello,

650
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 3: am I on Can you hear me? Yes, you're on

651
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:56,400
Speaker 3: You're on collar, Collar, Am I live right now? They

652
00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:59,440
Speaker 3: call the two people called. One to this day, as

653
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 3: far as I can tell, has remained anonymous. The other

654
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,920
Speaker 3: one was a guy named Mike Casey, and Mike Casey

655
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,759
Speaker 3: owned a company called Lamb Asphalt out of Las Vegas, Nevada.

656
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:14,320
Speaker 3: And he happened to be the employer of Jamie Pleazentia.

657
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 2: That's right.

658
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:18,440
Speaker 3: And he said, it's weird because you arrested one of

659
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:22,799
Speaker 3: my employees, one of my longtime employees, for this scam.

660
00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 3: And I also have another employee named Brian Rossiter who

661
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:29,799
Speaker 3: lost a finger not too long ago, and I think

662
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 3: they might be connected. I think that might be Brian

663
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:36,040
Speaker 3: Rossiter's finger. And that's how the whole thing finally came

664
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 3: crashing down because they got a hold of Brian Rossiter,

665
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:42,279
Speaker 3: they got a they gave him a DNA test, They

666
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:45,200
Speaker 3: matched it to the DNA taken from the finger, and

667
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:49,359
Speaker 3: they said it's Brian Rossiter's finger. Brian Rossiter worked with

668
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:54,360
Speaker 3: Jamie Plazentia. Jamie Plazentia was married to Anna Ayola. Ana

669
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 3: Ayola found a finger in her chili ipso facto, something's

670
00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:00,879
Speaker 3: rotten in Denmark and that's how it stands.

671
00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:03,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's even a little weirder when you find

672
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:07,720
Speaker 1: out the details. So Brian is at work, someone slams

673
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:10,799
Speaker 1: a tailgate of the truck on his hand, cuts an

674
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:12,480
Speaker 1: inch and a half off of his finger.

675
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:18,720
Speaker 2: Can you imagine the dude no cuts off his finger.

676
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,719
Speaker 1: And it's funny too, because Ed points out, instead of

677
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,320
Speaker 1: like driving to the hospital, which is what any normal

678
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:31,480
Speaker 1: person would have done, he had owed Placentia some money placentia.

679
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:34,200
Speaker 1: And this is a man, a husband of a woman

680
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,880
Speaker 1: who and it seems like they're both always looking to

681
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 1: scam somebody.

682
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 3: And they're looking for the angle.

683
00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:42,960
Speaker 1: He sees this finger and he goes, hey, you owe

684
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:45,239
Speaker 1: me money. Some people say it was fifty bucks. We

685
00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:45,879
Speaker 1: don't know for sure.

686
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:47,759
Speaker 3: I saw a hundred almost everywhere.

687
00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:49,200
Speaker 2: Okay, so let's say it's one hundred.

688
00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:49,680
Speaker 3: Okay.

689
00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 1: He's like, you give me that finger and we'll just

690
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:56,920
Speaker 1: call it square. And not only that, my friend, but

691
00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:59,320
Speaker 1: if you ever hear about this finger in the news,

692
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 1: keep it quiet, and I will give you a quarter

693
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,120
Speaker 1: of a million dollars at some point in the future.

694
00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:10,280
Speaker 3: Yep. That's what they call the carrot and the other carrot.

695
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:12,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he said, just drip some blood on this

696
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 1: roof shingle and that will be our contract.

697
00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:20,520
Speaker 3: Right right right to sign X with your stub, your

698
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 3: bloody stub.

699
00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:22,760
Speaker 2: How this old used roof shingle.

700
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:24,759
Speaker 3: I saw, actually I saw that he did go to

701
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:26,719
Speaker 3: the hospital and came back to the work site with

702
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:30,400
Speaker 3: his amputated finger. And that's what Jamie pleasidants. He was like, hey,

703
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:31,120
Speaker 3: I'm sure he did.

704
00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:33,920
Speaker 2: What are you gonna do with that any sense at all? Yeah,

705
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:36,400
Speaker 2: that he would just be like, wait a minute.

706
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:40,839
Speaker 3: So Brian Rossiter gives him his finger, and that's where

707
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:44,360
Speaker 3: the whole thing began, just a couple months before, right.

708
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:47,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think didn't Rossiter himself also called the

709
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:48,439
Speaker 1: tip line.

710
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:49,920
Speaker 3: I didn't see that anywhere.

711
00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 1: Okay, I heard he called the tip line himself because

712
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 1: he knew at this point he was getting no money

713
00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 1: out of the scam, so he thought, let me try

714
00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 1: and get this hundred grand at least, right, And Wendy's

715
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 1: never would cop to whether or not he got any

716
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:04,839
Speaker 1: tip line money, right.

717
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:09,000
Speaker 3: And so Mike Casey, the guy who from all from

718
00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:11,799
Speaker 3: everything that it seems he was innocent of this, he

719
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:14,080
Speaker 3: just happened to put two and two together because he

720
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:18,719
Speaker 3: knew the guys. He said Originally, Hey, you know, my

721
00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:22,560
Speaker 3: asphalt company maintains the lots of a few Wendy's around here,

722
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 3: and they've always been good to me, so I wanted

723
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:26,600
Speaker 3: to help out. That was an article in May. An

724
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:29,400
Speaker 3: article in September is Mike Casey saying, you know, Wendy's

725
00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:32,799
Speaker 3: never paid me that money for the hotline. So I

726
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:34,640
Speaker 3: don't know if he ever got it, but from what

727
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 3: I saw, he was going to have to split it

728
00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:38,879
Speaker 3: with the one other anonymous caller. I don't know if

729
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:41,640
Speaker 3: that was Brian Rossiter or not. Maybe Brian Rossterter was

730
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 3: scared that Jamie Plasencia might do something if he found

731
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:47,600
Speaker 3: out that he had been he had tipped him off

732
00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 3: for what. But supposedly Mike Casey and this anonymous caller

733
00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:55,440
Speaker 3: were going to split that one hundred grand. So whether

734
00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:58,400
Speaker 3: Wendy's actually pay that money or not, that remains to

735
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:00,640
Speaker 3: be seen. I don't know. I didn't see that anywhere.

736
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:01,240
Speaker 2: Well.

737
00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:04,440
Speaker 1: In the end, a Yella and her husband, she got

738
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:08,919
Speaker 1: sentenced to nine years, he got sentenced to twelve because

739
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:12,120
Speaker 1: I think they piled on him for the probably child

740
00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:13,800
Speaker 1: support right or was it the trailer scam?

741
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:16,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, he got three and a third years for

742
00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 3: the child support thing.

743
00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:23,359
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I don't know how long he actually served.

744
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:25,520
Speaker 1: I think she only served about four of that nine.

745
00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:31,719
Speaker 1: She later revealed some more details, including that she did

746
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:37,319
Speaker 1: cook the finger. Yeah, apparently it was not a It

747
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:40,920
Speaker 1: wasn't a raw finger, nor though was it cooked in

748
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:43,480
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy degree chili for three hours.

749
00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:45,440
Speaker 2: But it was cooked a little bit.

750
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:47,880
Speaker 1: I think she just literally probably put it in a

751
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:51,560
Speaker 1: pan and was thinking like, oh, wait a minute. I

752
00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 1: bet they didn't think I would think of this right,

753
00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:56,480
Speaker 1: and cooked up the finger a little bit.

754
00:38:56,800 --> 00:38:58,840
Speaker 3: One thing that she didn't think of the chuck was

755
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:02,640
Speaker 3: she didn't bite the finger, and they found out pretty

756
00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:05,759
Speaker 3: quickly through forensic investigation that there was no bite in

757
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:06,240
Speaker 3: the finger.

758
00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:09,360
Speaker 1: Nor did she throw up in the restaurant like she

759
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:12,240
Speaker 1: said she did, because there were people in the restaurant

760
00:39:12,239 --> 00:39:15,040
Speaker 1: that were like, no, she didn't vomit that I saw,

761
00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:17,239
Speaker 1: and employees were like, no, she didn't throw up that

762
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:17,680
Speaker 1: I saw.

763
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:20,600
Speaker 3: Her father in law and mother in law both said

764
00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:23,400
Speaker 3: that they saw her throw up, But yeah, there was

765
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:26,240
Speaker 3: no evidence of vomit anywhere in the bathroom or around

766
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:27,200
Speaker 3: her table or anything.

767
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:29,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they did a pretty bad job.

768
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:33,439
Speaker 3: Yeah they did. I was gonna use a nasty word

769
00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:37,960
Speaker 3: to characterize it, but I guess the family show so well.

770
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,239
Speaker 1: These are the worst kind of people, man, These litigious

771
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:45,279
Speaker 1: like just like work for your money man, going around

772
00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:46,520
Speaker 1: sueing corporations.

773
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:53,280
Speaker 3: I know. So wendy supposedly lost two point five million

774
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:57,680
Speaker 3: dollars in verifiable lost money. They had to cut people's hours.

775
00:39:57,719 --> 00:39:59,640
Speaker 3: This is another thing that kind of gets left off

776
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:01,880
Speaker 3: a lot. They had to cut the hours of the

777
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 3: employees in the Bay Area, in particular because there was

778
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:10,239
Speaker 3: such little foot traffic coming through their stores. So when

779
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:14,520
Speaker 3: they were convicted and sentenced, Jamie Plazentia and Anna Ayala

780
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:18,600
Speaker 3: were sentenced to pay back one hundred and seventy thousand

781
00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 3: plus dollars in lost wages to the Wendy's employees. Oh

782
00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:28,120
Speaker 3: and they were also ordered to pay five hundred thousand

783
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:31,040
Speaker 3: to jem Management, who owned the Wendy's, and then like

784
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:34,920
Speaker 3: another another substantial amount to Wendy's if they ever profited

785
00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:35,600
Speaker 3: from the crime.

786
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:40,320
Speaker 1: Man, bad people. She was banned from Wendy's, which I

787
00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:41,400
Speaker 1: don't know how you enforce that.

788
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:45,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was wondering that myself. Actually, it seems like

789
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:47,560
Speaker 3: I don't know if there's every Wendy's has a picture

790
00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:48,680
Speaker 3: of her or something like that.

791
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,120
Speaker 1: I know what's sports stadiums They do that when people

792
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:54,680
Speaker 1: are banned, and that is a little more enforceable because

793
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:57,840
Speaker 1: like you can literally just have everyone be aware of

794
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:00,600
Speaker 1: that person. That's like checking tickets and things. But you

795
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:02,680
Speaker 1: can't How can you keep someone from coming into any

796
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:03,520
Speaker 1: Wendy's anywhere?

797
00:41:03,719 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 3: I don't know. They can try. At least they can

798
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 3: send a message by saying you can't come here any longer.

799
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:15,520
Speaker 1: Arbi's two fingers two thousand and four, twenty twelve, No

800
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:20,240
Speaker 1: Cole's Frozen Custard in Wilmington, North Carolina, finger two thousand

801
00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:23,400
Speaker 1: and five. Oh Media Friday's Hamburger had a finger in

802
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:27,240
Speaker 1: two thousand and six. Wow, And those are all verified

803
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:30,279
Speaker 1: and they found, you know, like it was in the

804
00:41:30,320 --> 00:41:32,359
Speaker 1: supply chain, like someone lost a finger and it got

805
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,879
Speaker 1: mixed in And it's very just very unfortunate. I'm sure

806
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:37,439
Speaker 1: there were quiet settlements on those.

807
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:41,560
Speaker 3: I'm sure too. It's bizarre. I had no idea that

808
00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:43,480
Speaker 3: that happened. I thought it was almost always either a

809
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 3: case of mistaken identity or a hoax. I didn't realize

810
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:52,359
Speaker 3: that actually really happened, you know. Oh yeah, well that's

811
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:55,640
Speaker 3: the Wendy's Chili finger caper. If you ever wanted to

812
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:57,960
Speaker 3: know about it, now you do, and we're glad that

813
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:00,000
Speaker 3: you do. We're glad we're the ones that told you.

814
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:01,359
Speaker 3: And if you want to know more about it, go

815
00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:04,840
Speaker 3: read contemporary articles at the time. It's awesome just to

816
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:08,040
Speaker 3: see something like that unfold. It's so cool. And since

817
00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:10,400
Speaker 3: I said that, it's time for listener, Mayle.

818
00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:14,840
Speaker 2: And hey, shout out to Wendy's.

819
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:16,919
Speaker 1: I'm sure I don't know if they like people still

820
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:19,440
Speaker 1: talking about this or not, but they did not put

821
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:20,880
Speaker 1: a finger in anyone's chili.

822
00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:22,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, good point to make that clear.

823
00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:23,759
Speaker 3: Good point.

824
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,760
Speaker 1: All are you even gonna call this Adidas Puma? Hey, guys,

825
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 1: just finished listening to the feud between Addie and Rudy Dossler.

826
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:34,000
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, I really enjoyed it. My dad

827
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:40,719
Speaker 1: is actually from Hertzogenerach. We were an Adidas family through

828
00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:43,840
Speaker 1: and through, and my godmother and aunt, Helga worked for

829
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:47,239
Speaker 1: Adidas as an administrative assistant for years. In addition to this,

830
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:48,920
Speaker 1: almost jumped out of my seat. When you mentioned the

831
00:42:48,960 --> 00:42:52,640
Speaker 1: mayor of Herzo, you spoke of doctor Gerrman Hawker and

832
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:55,000
Speaker 1: how he repped a soccer match wearing one Adidas shoe

833
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:55,600
Speaker 1: in one Puma.

834
00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:58,600
Speaker 2: My uncle Hans was the mayor right before Hawker was

835
00:42:58,920 --> 00:42:59,480
Speaker 2: Oh cool.

836
00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:02,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, I knew you wouldn't be referring to him because

837
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:04,280
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have been caught dead in even one Puma

838
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:08,640
Speaker 1: because of my aunt's work at the opposing shop. I

839
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:10,960
Speaker 1: didn't wear Puma gear at myself until I was grown

840
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:13,760
Speaker 1: and could buy it myself, and my entire German family

841
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: called me a trader. And this was in the early

842
00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:17,919
Speaker 1: two thousand, so the tension is still real.

843
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:18,800
Speaker 2: Wow.

844
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:20,920
Speaker 1: I'm sure it was lighthearted at least I hope it

845
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:22,960
Speaker 1: was okay. In any case, I just want to let

846
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,080
Speaker 1: you know your research was spot on. Billy love hearing

847
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:27,520
Speaker 1: about something I knew a little bit about. By the way,

848
00:43:27,560 --> 00:43:30,440
Speaker 1: I also use your show in my classroom teaching twelfth

849
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:32,759
Speaker 1: grade government in Civics, and the kids.

850
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 3: Love it nice.

851
00:43:33,719 --> 00:43:41,000
Speaker 1: So a shout out to Jennifer Wessner Gajo at Thompson Stations,

852
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:44,160
Speaker 1: Tennessee and your senior government class.

853
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:47,680
Speaker 3: Well. Thank you, Mss Gajo. And class.

854
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:49,080
Speaker 2: That's probably not pronounced right.

855
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 3: Gaujo.

856
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:51,040
Speaker 2: I have no idea.

857
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:55,799
Speaker 3: Gaucho ganev, Yeah, gan show Ganev. That's what it is.

858
00:43:56,760 --> 00:43:58,360
Speaker 3: If you want to get in touch with us to

859
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:02,080
Speaker 3: say hi about old episode or for whatever reason, you

860
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:04,480
Speaker 3: can go on to stuff youshould Know dot com, check

861
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 3: out our social media links, and you can also send

862
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:15,480
Speaker 3: us an email to stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

863
00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:18,480
Speaker 2: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

864
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:22,759
Speaker 2: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

865
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:24,720
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.