Woman who said she found finger arrested

[Newsjock]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/11458225.htm

By Sandra Gonzales
Mercury News

The finger finally has pointed to Anna Ayala -- the woman at the center of the Wendy's chili mystery.

San Jose police confirmed that Ayala, 39, was arrested Thursday night in Las Vegas in connection with the incident.

Police would not elaborate on the details until a news conference today.

... ``She was arrested in Las Vegas tonight involving the Wendy's investigation, but we're not divulging the particulars about the arrest until the press conference,'' San Jose Police spokesman Enrique Garcia said Thursday.

more

[PartyPooper]

1. And, I would have thought they arrested her in Chile (Chili).

Sorry, for the bad pun. I just couldn't resist.

:D

:hi:

[all.of.me]

22. good one! my dad was the king of punsters.

i can appreciate them all!

[Igel]

26. Sadly, there is a suburb of Rochester, NY, called Chili.

Even more sadly, it's pronounced "Chye-lye", to rhyme with "bye-bye".

[Renew Deal]

2. Good

She really hurt Wendy's with this. Hopefully they'll own her by the time this is over.

[MADem]

3. If I were running Wendy's, I'd publicize the hell out of this arrest

Sue her for everything, demand a videotaped apology, ensure she goes to jail for a LONG TIME....and then make a joke out of it. Serve finger breadsticks free with the chile, or something.

I'd love to know whose finger it was...they'll tell us, eventually.

[elehhhhna]

49. "it's finger-lickin' good"

[JoFerret]

I know no facts

...but I find it hard to sympathise with a corporate giant purveyer of junk food over what may be a pathetic, disturbed, opportunistic, attention seeking individual. Who provided all the publicity? - the media who should have got this in proportion in the first place. They are the ones did the damage.

[Renew Deal]

30. If she didn't make the claim

None of this would have happened. It doesn't matter if you don't like the company or they deserved it.

[youspeakmylanguage]

58. I completely disagree...

I have no specific love for Wendy's, besides the fact that their fast food is slightly better than other chains. I know nothing about their labor practices or if they only purchase the meat of humanely slaughtered animals. But Wendy's is the victims here. Not only the stockholders, but the low-wage employees have suffered because of this. Fewer customers means fewer employees are needed to work, hence fewer working hours for said employees. Even the Thomas family's adoption charity is indirectly harmed through lost profits.

If this woman is guilty of setting this up herself, and she doesn't have a serious mental illness, then she deserves to be locked up for a long, long time. She is an alleged criminal - nothing more, nothing less.

Criminals that engage in this sort of fraud negatively affect public opinion on civil litigation and equal protection under the law, not to mention the overall credibility of people who really are victimized by corporate negligence and seek damages.

As far as the media is concerned, it did nothing but report what was alleged by the defendant, Wendy's, and the police. It was a freakish "man bites dog" story, hence the nationwide coverage.

[oblivious]

4. What nightmare for a company!

[JoFerret]

24. Poor company

...poor poor company. I wring my hands and pray. I weep for Wendy's.

[oblivious]

78. I don't weep for Wendy's but I imagine it happening to me.

So I have some sympathy for any company that has to go through something like that.

Something completely out of your control, basically nothing you did to deserve it, little you can do to control it. I mean, how do you plan for something like that? Scary.

The fact that they sell junk food and contribute to the Republican party is a separate issue.

[warrens]

53. 96 percent of donations to Rethugs

Fuck em. Plus, they were doing REALLY bad before this happened, and are now trying to say that it's responsible for their crappy sales.

[monobrau]

56. C'mon

I don't care about mega corporate restaurants, but a lot of hourly employees have had hours cut over this. These are people who can't make ends meet already. A lot of repub whore companies employ the guys on our side.

[youspeakmylanguage]

61. "...layoffs and reduced hours..."

Sales have dropped at franchises in Northern California, forcing layoffs and reduced hours, the company said...

If the allegations are true, she should be made to compensate these workers.

[Psephos]

77. Umm, yeah, that's going to happen n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. I wonder why it took so long.

This should have been obvious to the , oh never mind.

[bling bling]

6. Wonder where she got the finger.

This story is just gross. In every possible way.

[rodeodance]

16. I agree--this women needs lots of psychiatric help.

[MADem]

68. Actually, I kinda think she needs lots of JAIL TIME

This isn't the first time she has sued a fast food restaurant. She is a con artist, she knows full well what she is doing, and it's all about cash in hand.

[FourStarDemocrat]

76. I can't seem to get a finger on how she obtained this finger..

Will have to cross my fingers that we learn more about this at the upcoming press conference.

[Pinboy]

7. Ah, the Fickle Finger of Fate...

With apologies to "Laugh-In . . .

[On the Road]

29. OMG, I Had Forgotten All About the "Fickle Finger of Fate"!

:rofl:

[callous taoboy]

67. I loved laugh-in, and I was only 5 when it came out: Question-

Question: Was the Fickle Finger of Fate able to rotate? I seem to remember that an upward extending, rotating index finger was a sign back then that meant, "Big Deal." And I seem to remember Dan or Dick pushing a button on the base of the finger to make it rotate.

Ah, Where is that fickle finger today?

[mirandaod]

8. The worst thing about this

is that it's another nail in the coffin for genuine personal injury cases.

[JoFerret]

27. Exactly. What a crock of media tripe and hype.

One disturbed (possibly - but surely what many people thought at once)woman makes an allegation against a corporate purveyer of junk and the news coverage is wall to wall. sales drop. Corporate giant wreaks revenge on the individual. Pathetic all round.

And now this will be trotted out just like the story of the Mcdonald's coffee scalding as an example of the need for tort law reform and other ways to prevent companies from being held appropriately responsible for their misdeeds.

[youspeakmylanguage]

59. wreaks revenge?!?!?

When did defending yourself against what now appears to be fraudulent and untrue (not to mention grotesque) allegations become "wreaking revenge"? If owned a restaurant and someone pulled the same stunt in your chili, what would your reaction be?

I have no love for giant corporations, but fair is fair. I even believe Wendy's should be able to sue this woman for defamation if the charges are true.

[MADem]

70. I agree, and no one is thinking about the franchise owner

For all we know, he could be a screaming liberal. That franchise cost him a bundle to buy, and now he, or she, personally, is tainted. I think the franchise owner should sue her for all the business lost as a result of this stunt.

[maveric]

9. Maybe they found the rest of the body?

She probably put the finger in the chili herself.

[Kimber Scott]

15. That's what I've been wondering. Seems like if somebody was missing

a finger they would have stepped forward, unless they couldn't...

[elehhhhna]

50. They did. At McDonald's Corp. HQ.

not

[alittlelark]

10. Finally!!!!

She was soo obviously lying. It's been in our paper for awhile now - obvious hints. She came to the wrong locale for her fraud.

[superconnected]

11. I wonder how they fingered her.

[LiberalVoice]

13. I actually got a real life chickle outta that one.

:hi:

[Newsjock]

12. She was nabbed while watching 'Meet the Fockers' -- really

More details from the S.F. Chronicle
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/22/FINGER.TMP

... Family friend Ken Bono said officers raided the home around 9 p.m. and caught Ayala alone as she was watching "Meet the Fockers" on video.

"I had just left to get some soda at the store, and when I came back she was gone and there were cars from the (Las Vegas and San Jose) police," said Bono, 23, who lives with Ayala. "They said it for grand theft or something."

Bono said Ayala is innocent and eventually will be exonerated. He said she has been unfairly targeted by the police and Wendy's International Inc.

"They don't got jack s -- . They got her for something she didn't do. It's just something Wendy's is trying to do to her," Bono said.

[Autobot77]

74. I'm surprised she wasn't watching "Freddy Got Fingered"

[tammywammy]

14. I feel really sorry for Wendy's

They should sue and get some money from her, but really, that's usually pointless. She should have to make a public apology.

This does make the real cases even harder now, and I hope that she has a hefty fine or a little jail time for pulling this stunt.

And what I really want to know is....where did the finger come from?

[elehhhhna]

51. They should advertise Hands-Free Meals On the Go!

[Hekate]

17. A woman outside Las Vegas has been keeping exotic cats

Big ones, like leopards. (I forget when the Los Angeles Times carried the article)

Anyhow, this gal had the end of her finger nipped off by one of them, and the last she saw of her digit it was packed in ice at the ER. She left it there when she was told it could not be reattached....

I forget if she came forward on her own or if it was detective work that located her, but all along the cops had been checking with hospitals in CA and NV to see if anyone had come it with such an injury. When they located the cat-lady they immediately set out to see if they could match DNA and fingerprints, and to ferret out any conceivable link between the hospital and the family or friends of the woman who claimed it was in her chili.

When I first heard about the claim I thought: Really, now, if that finger had entered the chili in the factory, it would have been thoroughly cooked already by the time it got to Wendy's -- all the litigious one would have bitten into would have been a fingernail and a bit of bone.

I'm sure Wendy's will recover nicely, and the woman who made the false claim is already in a world of legal hurt. The law takes a pretty dim view of stunts like that, and I'm sure Wendy's lawyer does too.

Hekate

[Horse with no Name]

23. Bingo

It would have been cooked down like the meat.
Remembering my favorite scene from "Fried Green Tomatoes" where they barbequed Frank. Flesh is flesh is flesh. You put it in a pot with cattle or pork flesh--it's gonna cook down with it--and just like you don't see chunks of uncooked cows or pigs, you aint gonna see chunks of uncooked fingers.
I hope they prosecute this woman to the fullest extent of the law.

[elehhhhna]

52. So...if she'd just braised the fingernail, she'd be e millionare!

[Megahurtz]

62. LOL!!!

:7

[Samurai_Writer]

57. The woman's finger was not a match...

for the one in the Wendy's chili. They did DNA testing on it, I believe.

[youspeakmylanguage]

64. Believe it or not there are a lot of places to steal a human finger...

...but in most of those places it would be very difficult to hide the disfigured stiff. The easiest would be a funeral home. If she had an inside connection she could have snipped the finger early in the process. The rest of the body may have been buried or cremated, and unless the dead victim was a criminal or a member of the armed forces, the government wouldn't have the fingerprint on file.

[displacedtexan]

18. That's what she gets for not watching CSI.

Jeez! You'd think people would know better by now.

[Rich Hunt]

19. well DUH

Did anyone believe otherwise?

[LostinVA]

21. Nope. Not for a second.

As soon as I heard about this, I was like "yeah, right." It ended like it always ends...

[Dogmudgeon]

20. That poor company!

No punishment can be too severe for someone who deliberately defames an innocent corporation's products! She should be sent to a prison for life where they have lots of anal rape by guys named Bubba or Otis so she can be a Prison Bee-Yatch.

My heart goes out to Wendy's. They have suffered so much. How many of their employees will have to work overtime without pay just to make sure the CEO's kids don't go hungry this year?

:cry:

--p!

[alcibiades_mystery]

25. LOL

I especially love the part where you satirize the upstanding citizens who thrill at the thought of prison rape. Nicely done!

:yourock:
:applause:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

28. !

Thanks for that!

[skygazer]

75. I don't give a rat's ass about Wendy's

But I do get irritated at people who pull shit like this because they think they can get a fast buck out of a big company. Business at that particular place has gone way down and they've lost business in other areas. I don't care how that affects the company but it DOES affect the employees who wind up with hours cut or even layoffs.

In addition, crap like this just gives the GOP more fuel for the "frivolous lawsuit" debate.

The people who end up getting hurt the most by shit like that are the same poor people who get hurt by just about everything.

[Boswells_Johnson]

31. At least we know there's more than just lips and assholes in the chili!

[elehhhhna]

47. LMAO!

[LiberalEsto]

32. Woman arrested in chili finger case

Reuters: Woman Arrested in Wendy's Chili Finger Case
Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:32 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A woman who said she found part of a human finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili last month has been arrested and charged with larceny in connection with the incident, authorities said on Friday.
Anna Ayala, 39, was arrested on Thursday night at her home in Las Vegas and was in custody in the Clark County Detention Center there, police officials said.

http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8267820



I wonder who fingered her.

[WI_DEM]

33. Not surprising

Rumors are that she got the finger off a dead relative.

[trotsky]

34. Eww and double eww.

WTF is WRONG with some people?

[Kazak]

35. She didn't think...

they were going to do an investigation to determine the owner of the finger? *sigh*

[11cents]

36. I love the fact that this is called "the chili finger case"

[SteppingRazor]

37. So,

it looks as though they're now pointing the finger at the woman herself?

How much time will she do in prison? Will it be in the double _digits_?

Well, good to see she was nailed... fingernailed, so to speak.

[LiberalEsto]

39. She was a knucklehead

to say the least

[MARALE]

40. Good Job, LOL

You made me groan!

Very Punny.

:bounce: :crazy: :silly: :spank:

[elehhhhna]

45. Update; Her bond's been set in the single digits...not.

[youthere]

69. Will Wendy's _ Press-On_ after the bad publicity?

Police really put the polish on this investigation.

[SemperEadem]

38. I remember seeing the videotape

of the reporter asking her if she put it there, and she delievered an Academy Award (tm) performance on her indignation of being asked that question.

Funny... I'd like to see that tape played right before the tape of her perp walk.

[Hobarticus]

41. I applaud your punchline...eom

[Ian David]

42. Wendy's is a big Republican donor. I say we use it to our advantage

We can start a "Give Wendy's the Finger" campaign by holding signs outside Wendy's.

Or just posting them all over town.

The sign would have either a picture of the actual finger from Wendy's, or a drawing of a bloody amputated finger.



The sign would read, "Give Wendy's The Finger. BuyBlue.org"



BuyBlue.org's Rating:

Rating: Dark Red - 6 %
BuyBlue.org's Position:

Wendy's currently has a 6% BuyBlue rating due to political contributions for the 2003-2004 election cycle. Wendy's executives contributed very little to politicians outside a few donations to the corporate PAC. However, Wendy's has a Political Action Commitee which donated a very large amount of money during the last election cycle - $296,500 (6.00% D, 94.00% R).

More:
http://www.buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=75



See also:
Wendy's International
PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates 2004 Cycle

Total to Democratic Senate Candidates: $12,500
Total to Democratic House Candidates: $6,000


Total to Republican Senate Candidates: $75,000
Total to Republican House Candidates: $203,000


More:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.asp?strID=C00369090&Cycle=2004

[Megahurtz]

43. eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww!!!

:puke:Sick!!!

As if an employee would actually ladel something like this into a bowel and not even see it. What a twisted greedy woman:crazy:

[realFedUp]

44. They fingered her

so many jokes...so many others.

[Ian David]

48. Breaking News: Woman finds human eyeball in Wendy's stuffed potato

Eewwwww

[realFedUp]

55. must be the eye of the spud

hehehe.

[Rose Siding]

46. Can't help wondering about her daughter getting ill in that previous case

snip>
As it turns out, Ayala has a litigious history. She has filed claims against several corporations, including a former employer and General Motors, though it is unclear from court records whether she received any money. She said she got $30,000 from El Pollo Loco after her 13-year-old daughter got sick at one of the chain's Las Vegas-area restaurants. But El Pollo Loco spokeswoman Julie Weeks said last week that the company reviewed Ayala's February 2004 claim and paid her nothing.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3147786

[youspeakmylanguage]

60. I wouldn't be suprised...

...if this woman poisoned her own kid. Unbelievable.

[medeak]

65. only in Vegas would mug shot look like glamour shot

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0422051finger1.html

[arwalden]

54. I Knew Thumbthing Wasn't Right About This Story...

... but it looks like someone fingered her so they had enough evidence to nail her.

[Megahurtz]

63. This thread is just fucking hilarious!

:rofl:

[Name removed]

66. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Boswells_Johnson]

71. Apart from the odd post, I found this thread nothing but good fun

Don't you think bringing Cuba into the discussion was a little over the top?

"Yeah, shame on Wendy's for selling cheap food to people on a budget"

You imply philanthropic gestures. In fact, while people do willingly eat at these places, they sell as cheap a product as possible with as high a mark-up as possible for such food. If they were interested in helping people on a budget out, they could certainly provide a better product, but that would reduce the rediculous profit level.

"Stealing is stealing, no matter who you stole from. Wait, never mind, all businessmen are crooks, all corporations steal money, and capitalism has no redeeming features, so stealing is OK,"

I agree with you on the issue of stealing, but let's not overlook that many big companies do indeed operate on the belief that stealing money from customers--who often believe they are getting something better than they do--is ok. Why is it OK for corporations to screw customers over in the name of capitalism?

I think we need to lighten up about the jokes.

[MADem]

72. Put away the broad brush

Not everyone feels the way you describe us. For every post that is playing the corporate pig card, there are others that are snarky, flat out humourous or siding with the franchise, the franchise owner, and the workers.

Get to know us before you characterize and lecture, please.

It only makes you look stupid.

[NervousRex]

73. I give her credit....

She really gave Wendy's The finger.