WEBVTT - Selects: The Great Finger in the Wendy’s Chili Caper 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:04.280 Hey, everybody, happy Saturday morning or whenever this finds you. 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:09.560 Chuck here introducing this week's Selects episode, and we're gonna 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:14.480 replay the great Finger in the Wendy's Chili Caper episode 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:19.400 from January tenth, twenty nineteen. There was a finger found 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:28.600 in Wendy's chili, and this is that story, nuff said. 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:36.080 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.600 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:45.560 there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry And this 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:51.200 is the Stuff you Should Know. Chili Caper Edition Corporate Investigations, 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:55.000 Las Vegas, San Jose Chili. 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:57.400 Yeah, and that means we get to use our special 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:03.440 investigator nicknames Seattle Clark, Portland Bryant and San Francisco Jerry Rowland. 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.760 That's not bad. I would have chosen Tawny Katayan for me. 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:09.000 Yeah. 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.479 That was a very ham fisted way to set up 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.520 an inshow mention of our three shows next week. 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:20.120 Oh oh yeah, next, that's actually lost on me, Chuck Next. 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:21.319 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.080 It's apparently lost on the Pacific Northwest because no one's coming. 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:27.040 Next Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday. 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.120 We will be in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco on 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.440 January fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth at the More Theater, Revolution Hall, 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.440 and the Castro for Sketch Fest. And you have a 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:40.479 End of the World Live Friday night in San Francisco, 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.399 and I have a Movie Crush Live on Saturday afternoon 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:45.200 in San Francisco. 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:47.880 I also have a Brooklyn End of the World one 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:49.080 two on the twenty fourth. 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.040 Just FYI, Hey, let's not get carried away here, Okay, 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.920 all right, but those are the shows we have coming 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.000 up everyone, so come on out. There's still great tickets 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.480 left at all three of these venues and all five 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:02.720 probably I don't. 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:07.120 I'm not sold out for Movie Crush. So and especially 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:08.840 those End of the World of Movie. 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:10.760 Crush shows are your best chance to hang out and 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.800 talk to us personally because they are more intimate venues. 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:15.280 Like I wear a neglige. 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.440 Well, Busy Phillips is there, so I'm gonna have on 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:19.520 my dinner jacket. 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:20.600 Oh, very nice. 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.720 Trying to impress her with my tuxedo, right, she's not impressive. 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.440 Tuxedo and jeans is a it's a it's a look. 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.839 So get all the information at s ysk live dot 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:35.840 com or for the sketch Fest shows. Just go to 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:39.280 the s F sketch Fest site and come out and 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:41.400 support us everyone and shake our hand, pat us on 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:43.600 the back, or spit on our shoes. 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:45.520 Don't do that. Don't do that. 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.360 Spit between our shoes. Just make it close, you know. 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.200 Yeah, if you really hate us, spit between our shoes. 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.640 There you go. That's gonna end up on a T shirt. 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:56.960 I have a feeling. All right, let's talk about chili fingers, 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:01.360 all right, So back in two thousand and five. Actually, 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:03.440 let's getting the way back machine. Go watch this thing 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:04.240 go down. 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.800 Way Back machine just for this short distance. 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:10.040 Yeah, I mean, it's not like you can walk to 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:10.960 two thousand and five. 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:18.840 This is actually kind of great, though, because when you're 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:24.919 forty eight, almost to go back thirteen years, I want 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:29.000 to go back and do it all over. So all 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.440 of a sudden, I'm thirty five, which I thought was old. Yeah, 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.960 but man, I'd love to be thirty five right now. 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:37.800 I'm pretty happy with forty two. I've got to say, 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.320 I'm not quite I'm not quite happy with the kind 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.760 of catcher's mitt that my face is turning into but 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:45.880 everything else I'm pretty glad about. 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:51.200 Yeah, just wait, just wait, Okay, it happens. Oh no, 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.040 you're staring down the barrel of fifty and you're going, geez, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:57.160 I only got like fifteen more good years left. 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.920 Good. That is so not true, don't you know? Fifties 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.960 the new thirty five? Is it? Do you know what's 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.320 funny is all the people in this Wendy's in San Jose. 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.320 We just showed up at her looking at us, like, 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:09.760 what are these guys talking about? 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.680 I know they're like, get your superbar order underway. 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.000 Yeah, they're like, why don't you guys just be quiet 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.080 and listen to chumbawamba like everybody else's right now. 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:19.599 I don't think they had super bar in two thousand 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:21.720 and five. That was more like the eighties and nineties. 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:23.359 But still, what was it? Superbar? 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.800 Yeah you don't remember that. No, Wendy's in the eighties. 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:31.000 Oh yeah, the superbar, which was this weird combination of 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:35.279 tacos and pasta and salad and baked potatoes and baked 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.840 potatoes all just like whatever you want. 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.520 I forgot all about that, man, what a good idea. 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.400 Yeah, the superbar was a weird, weird thing, but I 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:43.800 ate it. 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.200 So there is no superbar anymore, but there is if 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:49.720 you look over there. It was a woman named Anna 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:55.159 or Anna Ayala, and she is sitting with her in laws, 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.040 her her mother in law or father in law, are 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.480 brother in law, maybe a couple other people, and she 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.240 is about to bite down into a bite of Wendy's 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.440 Chili that she has just ordered at the San Jose 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:13.040 Wendy's downtown San Jose Wendy's, I believe on March twenty second, 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:14.040 two thousand and five. 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:18.520 Yeah, she's in her her late thirties. It's cold in 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:19.159 San Jose. 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:19.920 M hmm. 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:22.520 She's from Las Vegas, so she's not used to this. 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:25.640 She's actually so she's from San Jose originally, but she's 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.880 moved to Vegas a couple of years ago for well, sure. 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:30.320 She has lived in Las Vegas lately and has been 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.560 warming in the sun there, right, and Uh is like, 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:35.719 I don't like this cold. I'm gonna order some chili 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.480 because Wendy's chili is so so good. 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:41.480 That's meaty and warm, as Ed puts it. 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.719 That's right, And so she sits down she's eating this thing, 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:47.800 and then all of a sudden, look at her. 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.080 She's just she's she's upset, Josh. 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.000 She's gone berserk. Everybody at the tables got their hands up, 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.240 like whoa, settle down, and she's like just pointed at 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.320 her chili, her chili cup she's reached the bottom of 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:06.279 and she's saying that there's a finger in her chili. Yeah, 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.000 she just bit into a finger. 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.040 Yeah, she looks like she's about to puke. I didn't 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.159 see her vomit. I didn't either, but in court later 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.400 she would say she did, so maybe we can be 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:18.279 key witnesses. 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:22.920 Right. She's going up to the counter demanding I think 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.280 she just said to one of the cashiers, who did 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:27.400 you kill to get this finger? Which is a weird 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:27.960 thing to say. 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.920 Yeah, she's yelling at everyone else in the restaurant with chili, saying, 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:31.440 don't eat that. 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:32.760 Yepre's fingers. 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:33.640 That's finger chili. 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:36.840 That's right, finger chili. No one wants chut chut cha. 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.800 She's starting to try to start a chant, I believe. 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.120 And there's only one guy that's still eating and he said, yeah, 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:43.520 I ordered the finger chili. 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.160 Right, They said, I think you got mine. So she's 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.360 freaking out things are starting to go down. There's a 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.320 hubbub in the restaurant. Everyone's got every She has everyone's attention. 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.480 She's saying that she just found a finger in her chili. 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.000 The people at the counter are incredulous. They're kind of 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:00.720 poking at it a little bit. They're saying, I think 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:02.960 it's a vegetable or whatever. It looks like a carrot 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.719 to me, lady, right, a very pale carrot with a 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.000 fingernail on it. And it's the fingernail really that does 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.480 the trick. After this point, it becomes clear to everyone 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:14.560 in the Wendy's that there is a finger that this 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.040 woman just found in her chili. There's a fingernail on it. 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.520 It's about an inch and a half a finger from 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.000 the tip to well about an inch and a half down, 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.200 and she just bit down on it and she found 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.960 it in her chili. So the Wendy's employees react swiftly. 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.000 They dump out all the chili. They call the police. 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.280 The police come by and they say, well, this is 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.040 a health department kind of thing, really, And the police leave, 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.480 and the Wendy's employees call the owners of the franchise, 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.360 JEM Management, and they say don't do anything of that finger. 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:49.320 Put it in the freezer, and we'll be there in 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.480 the morning. And at this point, Anna Alaya leaves or 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:56.080 Anna Ayala. This is going to be very difficult, because 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.960 I want to say Alaya, she leaves, Her families are 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.360 taking her family members taking pictures of the location, and 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:07.880 a huge national story has just begun. By ten o'clock 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:10.720 that night, this happened about seven. By ten o'clock on 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.160 the local news, there's an unconfirmed report of a woman 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.160 who found a finger in her chili at Wendy's. 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.800 And Dave Thomas gets indigestion immediately. 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.760 Well, he'd been dead a few years, so that'd be phenomenal. 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:24.800 I thought he was alive. 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:26.880 Then he died in two thousand and two. 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:28.800 Okay, well he's rolling over in his grave. 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.600 But by this time, you know, he'd really kind of 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.760 made Wendy's like a really loved and respected, you know, restaurant, 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:38.280 because everybody thought Dave Thomas was so great. 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.400 Well, yeah, and as are we out of the way 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:42.720 back machine? Are we done? Play acting? 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:45.719 I was serious, but yes we are. 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:49.760 Well you were seriously play acting. You were Laurence Olivier. 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:53.400 Maybe I was delusional. I thought we were in that one. 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:54.560 Okay, So. 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.840 Almost immediately word starts to spread on the news. Obviously, 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.720 and as you might well imagine, the Windy's restaurant chain, 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:09.560 especially in the area in the Bay Area near San Jose, 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:15.480 it really starts to take a business hit. As you 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.400 would imagine, people are not like, oh, they found a 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.760 finger in some Wendy's chili. That really reminds me how 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:24.559 much I love Wendy's chili. Right, let's go out and 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.040 get a hot cup, right, because they are sort of 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:27.920 famous for their chili. 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:30.760 Oh yeah. I mean, like, if you want chili at 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.240 a fast food restaurant, you're going to Wendy's because you're 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.439 not going to find it anywhere else. They really planted 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:36.960 their flag and the chili market. 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.320 Yeah, the old an W's had pretty good chili. 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.240 Oh yeah, but you wanted that on a dog. 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:47.959 Sure, And of course the Midwest still very famous for 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:49.000 their skyline chili. 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.239 Mm hm, which is delicious? 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:52.760 Is that? I guess that'd be fast food? 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.520 Huh yeah, I think they actually have skyline chili restaurants. 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:59.880 Yeah, yeah, which is good. It's quite good, it is. 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.520 But if you're going to go just about anywhere in 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:05.400 the US, if you have a hankering for chili, you're 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.120 gonna go to Wendy's. But like you said, sales started 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.320 to plummet, and not just like chili sales, all wendy 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:13.640 sales started to take it hit, especially in the Bay Area, 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:17.800 like you said, especially in the Western United States. People 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.480 were just kind of grossed out by this whole idea. 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.960 But like I said, the cops had shown up and 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:29.240 decided it was a health inspector's or a health department's jam. 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.600 They didn't really have anything to do with it. So 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:35.480 the next morning, the owners of the franchise, the county 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:39.439 health inspector, they showed up, I think they contacted Wendy's 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.640 communications department, and the gears were starting to move. There 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.480 was something that they had to deal with, and that 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.200 was basically threefold. It was really twofold as far as 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:52.959 Wendy's was concerned at first, but the third one crept 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:58.319 in pretty quickly. Whose finger was this? Sure, how did 0:10:58.320 --> 0:10:59.760 the finger get into the chili? 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:00.560 Yeah? 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.959 And then after that, who was this woman who found 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:08.480 the finger in her chili? And so Wendy's really started 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:13.040 to focus on the first two because one thing. This 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.640 whole the way that this whole thing played out, the 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.520 cops were very hands off at first. They felt this 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.720 was a health department issue, a public health issue, and 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.160 not a police issue, and basically said, you need to 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.000 go figure this out yourself Wendy's, And so Wendy's had 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.480 to do a lot of extra legwork that they probably 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:34.319 wouldn't have had to do had the cops decided immediately 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.720 that it was a criminal issue. But in the cops defense, 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.240 it didn't appear immediately to be a criminal issue. It 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.320 appeared to be like a woman found a finger in 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.040 her chili at Wendy's and that's gross, So go figure 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:46.000 it out Wendy's. 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:47.199 Yeah. 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:49.439 I also bet there was like one guy who literally 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.560 ate went to that specific Wendy's to get chili the 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.720 next day and was like, dude, that's the last place 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.280 you're going to find a finger in your chilli now, right, Yeah, 0:11:58.440 --> 0:11:59.680 there's no way it would happen again. 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:00.680 What are the chances. 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:03.000 Yeah, like flying on an airline right after they have 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.760 a crash. 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:06.960 He's like, you go to Burger King, you're gonna get 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:07.360 a finger. 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:10.800 They're going to purposely give you a finger man, don't 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:11.439 be naive. 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.920 All right, So did you introduce police Chief Rob Davis yet? 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:16.679 Not yet? All right? 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.560 So this is the guy San Jose police chief that 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:23.000 would ultimately lead this investigation. 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.080 Later on, though after Wendy's did a lot of the 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:26.440 initial legwork for him. 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:33.280 Yes, he would lead the investigation. And he basically was like, 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.120 I got to find out who this lady is because 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:39.800 Wendy's they're operating on the downlow here and this is 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.640 a sort of a and apparently this is this case 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.120 is taught in classes now about like how to handle 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:48.040 a crisis as a corporation. 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:51.280 Yeah, I've seen I've seen it criticized. I've also seen 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.920 it held up as an example of what to do 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:54.760 too well. 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:57.400 I mean, here's what Wendy's can and can't do. What 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.400 they can do is quietly throw a lot of money 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:05.160 at this investigation on their own and then publicly. What 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.720 they can't do is start to go after this lady 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:14.040 and be too sort of dismissive of this finger like 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.199 there's no way, lady, this lady's nut, she's whatever, she's 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:19.600 after money, Like, you can't do that as a public 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.719 facing company. You have to be doing all your due 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.679 diligence sort of quietly, and they really were, They really were. 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:27.720 So how about this, dude, Let's take a break and 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.040 then we'll come back and we'll talk about the investigation 0:13:30.160 --> 0:14:01.280 that Wendy started. How about that? All right? All right, Chuck. So, 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.440 like you said, Wendy's can't just be like that, lady's 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.640 a liar. There's no way that's our finger. They had 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.520 to basically operate in the background. They couldn't appear like 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.440 they were obstructing the police investigation. They couldn't appear like 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:19.240 they were smearing ana Ayala, especially because the early reports 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.880 were very sympathetic to this woman too. Everybody was very 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.000 grossed out by this. Sure, but at the same time, 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:26.960 they had to deal with this issue, and they had 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.200 to get to the bottom of whose finger this was 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.120 and where the finger came from. 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.920 Yeah, And so the obvious first place to start is 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:39.960 the restaurant itself, the employees there. The very obvious first 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:41.920 place to start is to see if anyone was missing 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:42.360 a finger. 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.440 Sure, and that's what they did. They said, show us 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:44.880 your hands. 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.640 Yeah, everyone looked at everyone's fingers. They were all there, 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.400 and they went all right, so far, so good. They 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:54.440 would eventually put everyone on staff through a polygraph test, 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:59.600 which they all passed. They would obviously then they would 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.880 go to the supply chain to see if this thing 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:05.040 might have because you know, these things happened. 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:06.920 Rarely. 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.560 They do though, Well, I found five other cases of 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.160 fingers in fast food. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.560 That were legitimate. Oh yeah, oh wow, So it happens 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.480 up to supply chain. You know, there can be an 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.480 industrial accident that leaves a finger in a bag of lettuce, 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:24.520 greens or something, and that might eventually find its way 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:25.720 to a Wendy's superbar. 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:26.880 Oh my god. 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:31.000 You know it doesn't happen much, huh. I wouldn't be 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:31.680 too freaked out. 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:33.280 I'm still freaked out. 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:34.120 We'll go over. 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:38.040 Those at the end. But they're going up the supply chain. 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.520 They're really doing their due diligence. They can't find. They 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.280 offer a reward at first of fifty grand, later one 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:46.040 hundred grand. 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.720 Well, they set up, yeah, a hotline for tips. 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:53.200 But they're basically, as time is going on, becoming more 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.200 and more confident that they did not have a finger 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.640 in that chili by their own fault. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.160 They traced the chill ingredients to seven different suppliers. And 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:06.440 they got documentation from all seven suppliers that nobody at 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.520 their companies had suffered any kind of finger injury at 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:13.560 any any recent time. And also, like you said, going 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.120 at the store, doing at any of the nearby stores 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:20.600 had suffered any finger injury, let alone an amputation. And 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.520 so Wendy's was like, this is this didn't come from us, 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:27.360 This didn't come from inside our store. And they also 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.720 they kind of ran a simultaneous forensic investigation as well. 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:34.720 They hired a woman named doctor Lynn Bates who's the 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.040 CEO of a company called Altecha out of Manhattan, Kansas. 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:44.200 And if you are looking for evidence or study of 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.320 a body part that was found in food, you go 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.360 to doctor Lynn S. Bates and Alteca because they are 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:55.840 they engage in forensic food microscopy. That's what they do, 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.480 is there. That's their bread and butter, is studying body 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:02.360 parts found food. And she'd been doing it since nineteen 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.520 eighty six. So Wendy's went to her and said, here's 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.000 a piece of this finger. Was this finger cooked in 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.800 this chili? Whose finger is it? She's like, I can't 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:12.920 tell you whose finger it is, but I can tell 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:16.159 you that there is no indication that this finger was 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.280 cooked for three hours in chili at one hundred and 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.239 seventy degrees. It just wasn't. So that was a that 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:27.600 combined with the Wendy's no Wendy's employer or supplier's employers 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.760 missing a finger, that told Wendy's everything they need to 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:32.680 know that they were being defrauded. 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:37.119 Yeah, and you would think, just grab a fingerprint police force, 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:39.040 and they weren't able to. 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:39.760 They weren't able to. 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.000 They said if they found a hand that they might 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:47.359 could literally look and compare fingerprints, but they they didn't 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.960 get a good enough print off it to do a 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:52.399 legitimate database. 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.000 Search, right right, They just had to sit around and 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:56.320 wait for that hand to show up. 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:58.800 Because that thing had been cooking in chili for three hours. 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.520 It had not cooked in chili for three hours at 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:07.240 any rate. So Wendy's knew what was going on. Now 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.800 they had to go to the cops and say, we're 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.520 being defrauded. Not only did they have the search for 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:17.080 the missing finger investigation internally, and they hired Lynn Bates 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:21.680 to do forensic work on the finger itself, they also 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:26.560 hired a detective to start looking around at Anna Ayala, 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.720 and the detective turned up some very interesting stuff about her. 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.399 Yeah, he was like, wait a minute, this woman has 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.960 filed at least thirteen civil lawsuits, some against major corporations, 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.920 and they He probably could have stopped there, and Wendy's 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.760 would have just been like Dave Thomas from the grave 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.960 would have said, see there, she's no good. 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.760 That's a good Dave Thomas. So I think he would 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.040 have said, like, she should still get the benefit of 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:55.480 the doubt. 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:59.919 I don't know, man, when someone is this as a 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.240 pattern of litigious behaviors like this. 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:06.760 Well maybe he finished with proved me wrong one. 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.680 There were a couple of notable ones that it's sort 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:16.119 of frustratingly hard to find information. She claimed that she 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.080 won a thirty thousand dollars settlement from El Polio Loco 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:22.280 from medical bills from her daughter getting sick from Samonella. 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.119 Al Pollo Loco has always been on record saying never happened. 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.600 We did not give that lady a dime, right GM. 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:33.280 She sued GM because the front wheel of her car 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:37.520 came off and there was an accident, and that suit 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:41.480 was dismissed with prejudice. When she fired her lawyer was 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:42.359 a no show in court. 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:44.640 Oh is that what that means? No? 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:46.800 No, no with prejudice means you can't bring it back. 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.520 Oh okay, so you can't. She can't say, well, well 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:53.840 I didn't show up and my lawyer was bad, so let's. 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:54.160 Do this again. 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:55.960 Okay, I gotcha, I get so. 0:19:56.080 --> 0:20:00.400 Basically it was dead in the water. So she suit 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.520 a former employer for her sexual harassment. I'm not even 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:04.760 going to comment on that one because I have no 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:06.640 idea that could very well have been legitimate. 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.679 That one struck me as possibly legitimate, but she dropped 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:10.800 it right. 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.960 She lawyered up immediately with a chili finger, and everything 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:22.320 made Chief Rob Davis very suspicious. And then this guy 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:27.280 that lived with her family named Ken Bono or Bono? 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:29.080 Would you say Bono? 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:31.879 I've been saying Bono hasn't even occurred to me. It 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:36.159 could be Bono. Ken Bono's related to Bono Ken Bono. 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.359 Because the cops are starting to ask questions. At this point, 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:42.040