Stuff You Should Know - Selects: The Great Finger in the Wendy’s Chili Caper

Episode Date: October 25, 2025

In 2005 a woman named Anna Alaya discovered a length of human finger – nail and all – in her Wendy’s chili. Her cries of disgust would set off a media firestorm, a criminal investigation and a prison sentence for her and her husband. Listen to Josh and Chuck go through the whole mess in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. Push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors. For the next era of gaming.

Upgrade to smooth, high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. La Novo Novo So mihante It's Anna Ortiz

And I'm Mark and Delicato Might know us as Hilda And Justin From Ugly Betty Welcome to our new podcast Viva Betty Yay We're re-watching the series

From start to finish And talking to iconic guests Like Betty herself America Ferreira There was this moment When the glasses went on And it was like This is our Betty

Listen to Viva Betty on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everybody, happy Saturday morning or whenever this finds you. Chuck here introducing this week's Selects episode, and we're going to replay the Great Finger in the Wendy's Chili Caper episode from January 10th, 2019. that was a finger found in Wendy's Chili and this is that story. Enough said. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of IHeart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant and there's Jerry. And this is the Stuff You Should... should know, chili caper edition, corporate investigations, Las Vegas, San Jose, Chile. Yeah, and that means we get to use our special investigator nicknames, Seattle, Clark, Portland, Bryant, and San Francisco, Jerry Rowland. That's not bad. I would have chosen Taunty Ketian for me. Yeah, that was a very ham-fisted way to set up an in-show mention of our three shows next week. Oh, oh, yeah. That was actually lost on me, Chuck.

Next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It's apparently lost on the Pacific Northwest because no one's coming. Right. Next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we'll be in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. Yeah. On January 15th, 16th, and 17th,

at the Moore Theater Revolution Hall and the Castro for Sketchfest. And you have a End of the World Live Friday night in San Francisco. Mm-hmm. And I have a movie crush live on Saturday afternoon in San Francisco. I also have a Brooklyn End of the World One, two, on the 24th, just FYI.

Hey, let's not get carried away here. Okay, all right. But those are the shows we have coming up, everyone. So come on out. There's still great tickets left at all three of these venues. And all five, probably. I'm not sold out for Movie Crush. No, I'm not either.

No. And especially those End of the World of Movie Crush shows, are your best chance to hang out and talk to us personally because they're more intimate venues. Like, I wear a negligee. Well, busy Phillips is there, so I'm going to have on my dinner jacket. Oh, very nice. Trying to impress her with my tuxedo.

Right. Which is not impressive. Tuxedo and jeans is a look. So get all the information at sysklive.com or for the Sketchfest shows, just go to the S-F sketch fest site and come out and support us, everyone, and shake our hand, pat us on the back, or spit on our shoes. Don't do that. Don't do that. Spit between our shoes. Just make it close, you know.

Yeah, if you really hate us, spit between our shoes. There you go. That's going to end up on a t-shirt, I have a feeling. All right, let's talk about chili fingers. All right, so back in 2005. Actually, it's getting the Wayback machine. Go watch this thing go down. Way back machine, just for this short distance?

Yeah. I mean, it's not like you can walk to 2005. This is actually kind of great, though, because when you're 48 almost, to go back 13 years. I want to go back up and do it all over. So all of a sudden I'm 35, which I thought was old. Yeah. But, man, I'd love to be 35 right now. I'm pretty happy with 42, I've got to say.

I'm not quite happy with the kind of catcher's mitt that my face is turning into, but everything else. I'm pretty glad about. Yeah, just wait, just wait. Okay. Just wait a 48 happens. Oh, no. You're staring down the barrel of 50, and you're going, geez, I only got like 15 more good years left.

That is so not true. Don't you know 50s, the new 35? Is it? You know, what's funny is all the people in this Wendy's in San Jose we just showed up at or looking at us, like, what are these guys talking about? I know, they're like, get your super bar order underway. Yeah, they're like, why don't you guys just be quite, and listen to Chambalamba, like everybody else is right now.

I don't think they had Super Bar in 2005. That was more like the 80s and 90s, but still. What was it, Super Bar? Yeah, you don't remember that? No. Wendy's in the 80s. Oh, yeah. At the Super Bar, which was this weird combination of tacos and pasta and salad.

And baked potatoes. Just like whatever you want. I forgot all about that, man. What a good idea. Yeah, the Super Bar was a weird thing, but I ate it. So there is no super bar anymore, but there is, if you look over there, there's a woman named Anna or Anna Ayala. And she is sitting with her in-laws, her mother-in-law, her father-in-law, or brother-in-law, maybe a couple other people. And she is about to bite down into a bite of Wendy's chili that she has just ordered at the San Jose Wendy's, downtown San Jose Wendy's, I believe, on March 22nd, 2004.

Yeah, she's in her late 30s. It's cold in San Jose. She's from Las Vegas, so she's not used to this. She's actually, so she's from San Jose originally, but she's moved to Vegas a couple years ago. Well, sure. She has lived in Las Vegas lately and has been warming in the sun there. Right.

And it's like, I don't like this cold. I'm going to order some chili because that windy's chili is so, so good. It's meaty and warm, as Ed puts it. That's right. And so she sits down. She's eating this thing, and then all of a sudden, look at her. She's just... She's upset, Joss.

She's gone berserk. Everybody at the table's got their hands up, like, whoa, settle down. And she's, like, just pointed at her chili, her chili cup, which she's reached the bottom of. And she's saying that there's a finger in her chili. Yeah. Because she just bit into a finger. Yeah, she looks like she's about to puke. Mm-hmm.

I didn't see her vomit. I didn't either. But in court later, she would say she did. So maybe we can be key witnesses. Right. She's going up to the counter demanding. I think she just said to one of the cashiers, who did you kill to get this finger, which is a weird thing to say.

Yeah, she's yelling at everyone else in the restaurant with chili saying, don't eat that. There's fingers. That's finger chili. That's right. Finger chili, no one wants. Cha, cha, cha. She's starting to start a chant, I believe.

And there's only one guy that's still eating. And he said, yeah, I ordered the finger. your chili. Right. I think you got mine. So she's freaking out. Things are starting to go down. There's a hubbub in the restaurant. Everyone's got every, she has everyone's attention. She's saying that she just found a finger in her chili. The people at the counter are incredulous. They're kind of poking at it a little bit. They're saying, I think it's a vegetable or whatever. Yeah, it looks like a carrot to me, lady. Right. A very pale carrot with a fingernail on it. And it's the fingernail really that does the trick. After this point, it becomes clear to everyone in

Wendy's that there is a finger that this woman just found in her chili there's a fingernail on it's about an inch and a half of the finger from the tip to well about an inch and a half down and she just bit down on it and she found it in her chili so the Wendy's employees react swiftly they dump out all the chili they call it they call the police the police come by and they say well this is a health department kind of thing really and the police leave and the Wendy's employees call the owners of the franchise jem management and they say don't do anything to that finger put it in the freezer and we'll be there in the morning and at this point anna alea leaves or anna ayala this is going to be very

difficult um because i want to say alea yeah she leaves her families are taking her family members are taking pictures of the location and a huge national story has just begun by 10 o'clock that night this happened about seven by 10 o'clock on the local news there's an unconfirmed report of a woman who found a finger in her chili at Wendy's and Dave Thomas gets indigestion immediately well he'd been dead a few years so that'd be phenomenal I thought he was alive then he died in 2002 okay well he's rolling over in his grave but by this time you know he'd really kind of made Wendy's like a really loved and respected you know restaurant because everybody thought Dave

Thomas was so great. Well, yeah, and are we out of the Wayback Machine? Are we done play acting? I was serious, but yes, we are. Well, you were seriously play acting. You were Lawrence Olivier, maybe. I was delusional. I thought we were in that Wendy.

So almost immediately, word starts to spread on the news, obviously. And as you might well imagine, the Wendy's restaurant chain, especially in the the area, in the Bay area near San Jose, it really starts to take a business hit, as you would imagine. People are not like, oh, they found a finger in some Wendy's Chili. That really reminds me how much I love Wendy's Chili. Let's go out and get a hot cup. Right.

Because they are sort of famous for their chili. Oh, yeah. I mean, if you want chili at a fast food restaurant, you're going to Wendy's because you're not going to find it anywhere else. They really planted their flag in the chili market. Yeah, the old A&Ws had pretty good chili. Oh, yeah, but you wanted that on a dog. Sure, and of course the Midwest still very famous for their skyline chili, which is delicious.

I guess that'd be fast food, huh? Yeah, I think they actually have Skyline chili restaurants. Yeah, which is good. It's quite good. It is. But if you're going to go just about anywhere in the U.S. and you're having a hankering for chili, you're going to go to Wendy's. But like you said, sales started to plummet and not just like chili sales, all windy sales started to take a hit, especially in the Bay Area, like you said, especially in the western United States.

People were just kind of grossed out by this whole idea. But like I said, the cops had shown up and decided it was a health inspectors or a health department's jam. They didn't really have anything to do with it. So the next morning, the owners of the franchise, the county health inspector, They showed up, I think they contacted Wendy's communications department, and the gears were starting to move. There was something that they had to deal with, and that was basically threefold. It was really twofold as far as Wendy's was concerned at first, but the third one crept in pretty quickly. Whose finger was this?

Sure. How did the finger get into the chili? Yeah. And then after that, who was this woman who found the finger in her chili? And so Wendy's really started to focus on the first two Because one thing that this whole The way that this whole thing played out The cops were very hands off at first

They felt this was a health department issue A public health issue and not a police issue And basically said you need to go figure this out yourself Wendy's And so Wendy's had to do a lot of extra legwork That they probably wouldn't have had to do Had the cops decided immediately that it was a criminal issue but in the cop's defense it didn't appear immediately to be a criminal issue it appeared to be like a woman found a finger in her chili at Wendy's and that's gross so go figure it out Wendy's yeah I also bet there was like one guy who literally ate went to that specific Wendy's to get chili the next day and was like dude that's the last place you're going to find a finger in your chili now right yeah there's no way it would happen again what are the chances yeah like flying on an airline right after they have a crash he's like you go to Burger King, you're going to get a finger.

They're going to purposely give you a finger, man. Don't be naive. All right, so did you introduce police chief Rob Davis yet? Not yet. All right, so this is the guy, San Jose Police Chief, that would ultimately lead this investigation. Later on, though, after Wendy's did a lot of the initial legwork for him. Yes, he would lead the investigation.

And he basically was like, I've got to find out who this lady is. because Wendy's, they're operating on the down low here. And this is a sort of a, and apparently this case is taught in classes now about like how to handle a crisis as a corporation. Yeah, I've seen it criticized. I've also seen it held up as an example of what to do too. Well, I mean, here's what Wendy's can and can't do. What they can do is quietly throw a lot of money at this investigation on their own.

And then publicly, what they can't do is start to go after this lady and be too sort of dismissive of this finger. Like, there's no way, lady, this lady's nuts. She's whatever. She's after money. Like, you can't do that as a public-facing company. You have to be doing all your due diligence sort of quietly, and they really work.

They really were. So how about this, dude? Let's take a break, and then we'll come back and we'll talk about the investigation that Wendy started. How about that? All right. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com.

Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. Push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors. For the next era of gaming, upgrade to smooth high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Samihante, it's Anna Ortiz.

And I'm Mark and Delicado. You might know us as Hilda and Justin from Ugly Betty. We played mother and son on the show, but in real life, we're best friends. And I'm all grown up now. Welcome to our new podcast. Viva Betty! Yay! Woo-hoo! Can you believe it has been almost 20 years?

I... That's not even possible. Well, you're the only one that looks that much different. I look exactly the same. We're re-watching the series from start to finish and getting into all the fashions, the drama, and the behind-the-scenes moments that you've never heard before. You're going to hear from guests like America Ferreira,

Vanessa Williams, Michael Yuri, Becky Newton, Tony Plana, and so many more. Icons, each and every one. All of a sudden, like, someone, like, comes running up to me. And it's Selma Hayek. And she's like, you are my ugly bitchy. And I was like, what is she even talking about? Listen to Viva Betty as part of the MyCultura podcast network.

Available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called Playing Along is back. I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together in an intimate setting. Every episode's a little bit different, but it all involves music and conversation with some of my favorite musicians. Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Leve, Rufus Weymruhe, Remy Wolf, Mark Rebier, Mavis Staples, really too many to name. And there's still so much more to come in this new season, including the powerful psychedelic, duo Black Pumas, my old pal and longtime songwriting friend, Jesse Harris, and the legendary Lucinda Williams. Listen to Nora Jones is playing along on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, Chuck, so like you said, Wendy's can't just be like, that lady's a liar. There's no way that's our finger. They had to basically operate in the background. They couldn't appear like they were obstructing the police investigation. They couldn't appear like they were smearing Anna Ayala, especially because the early reports were very sympathetic to this woman, too. Everybody was very grossed out by this. Sure. But at the same time, they had to deal with this issue

and they had to get to the bottom of whose finger this was and where the finger came from. Yeah, and so the obvious first place to start is the restaurant itself. The employees there, the very obvious first place to start is to see if anyone was missing a finger. Sure, and that's what they did. They said, show us your hands.

Yeah, everyone looked at everyone's fingers. They were all there, and they went, all right, so far so good. They would eventually put everyone on staff through a polygraph test, which they all passed. They would, obviously, then they would go to up the supply chain to see if this thing might have, because, you know, these things happened. Yeah, rarely they do, though. Well, I found five other cases of fingers in fast food.

That were legitimate? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. So it happens. Up the supply chain, you know, there can be an industrial accident that leaves a finger in a bag of lettuce greens or something. and that might eventually find its way to a Wendy's Super Bar.

Oh, my God. You know? It doesn't happen much. I wouldn't be too freaked out. I'm still freaked out. We'll go over those at the end. But they're going up the supply chain. They're really doing their due diligence.

They can't find, they offer a reward at first of 50 grand, later 100 grand. Well, they set up, yeah, a hotline for tips. But they're basically, as time is going on, becoming more and more confident that they did not have a finger in that chili, by their own fault. They traced the chili ingredients to seven different suppliers, and they got documentation from all seven suppliers that nobody at their companies had suffered any kind of finger injury at any recent time. And also, like you said, no one at the store, no one at any of the nearby stores had suffered any

finger injury, let alone an amputation. And so Wendy's was like, this didn't come from us. This didn't come from inside our store. And they also, they kind of ran a simultaneous forensic investigation as well. They hired a woman named Dr. Lynn Bates, who's the CEO of a company called Alteca out of Manhattan, Kansas. And if you are looking for evidence or study of a body part that was found in food, you go to Dr. Lynn S. Bates and Alteca because they are, they engage in forensic food microscopy.

That's what they do. That's their bread and butter is studying body parts found in food. And she'd been doing it since 1986. So Wendy's went to her and said, here is a piece of this finger. Was this finger cooked in this chili? Whose finger is it? She's like, I can't tell you whose finger it is. But I can tell you that there is no indication that this finger was cooked for,

three hours in Chile at 170 degrees. It just wasn't. So that was a, that combined with the Wendy's, no Wendy's employer or suppliers' employers missing a finger, that told Wendy's everything they need to know that they were being defrauded. Yeah, and you would think just grab a fingerprint police force. And they weren't able to. They weren't able to.

They said if they found a hand that they might could literally look and compare fingerprints, but they didn't get a good enough print off it to do a legitimate database search. Right, right. They just had to sit around and wait for that hand to show up. Because that thing had been cooking in chili for three hours. It had not been cooked in chili for three hours. That's right. At any rate, so Wendy's knew what was going on.

Now they had to go to the cops and say we're being defrauded. Not only did they have the search for the missing finger investigation internally, And they hired Lynn Bates to do forensic work on the finger itself. They also hired a detective to start looking around at Anna Ayala. And the detective turned up some very interesting stuff about her. Yeah, he was like, wait a minute, this woman has filed at least 13 civil lawsuits, some against major corporations. And he probably could have stopped there.

And Wendy's would have just been like, Dave Thomas from the grave would have said, See there? She's no good. That's a good Dave Thomas. I think he would have said, like, she should still get the benefit of the doubt. Oh, I don't know, man. When someone is this as a pattern of litigious behaviors like this.

Well, maybe he finished with, prove me wrong. One, there were a couple of notable ones. It's sort of frustratingly hard to find information. She claimed that she won a $30,000 settlement from El Pollo Loco from medical bills from her daughter getting sick from Salmonella. El Pollo Loco has always been on record saying, never happened. We did not give that lady a dime. Right. GM, she sued GM because the front wheel of her car came off and there was an accident.

And that suit was dismissed with prejudice when she fired her lawyer was a no-show in court. Oh, is that what that means? No, no, no. With prejudice means you can't bring it back. Oh, okay. So you can't, she can't say, well, like, well, I didn't show up and my lawyer was bad, so let's do this again. Okay, I got you, I got you. So basically, it was dead in the water.

So she sued a former employer for sexual harassment. I'm not even going to comment on that one because I have no idea. That could very well have been legitimate. That one struck me as possibly legitimate, but she dropped it. Right. She lawyered up immediately with the chili finger And everything made Chief Rob Davis very suspicious And then this guy

That lived with her family named Ken Bono or Bono What would you say, Bono? I've been saying Bono hasn't even occurred to me It could be Bono Ken Bono Maybe he's related to Bono Ken Bono Because the cops are starting to ask questions at this point

They do official investigations, they search her house She claims that they held a gun to her head, ransacked her home, and, like, abused her daughter. Which is quite a charge for a finger-chilly house investigation. There's a picture of her and her daughter in the driveway talking to a reporter, and her daughter's got, like, her arm in a sling. But, like, the kind of sling you just go by at the drugstore. Yeah. So this was a guy who lived, Bono, lived with their family.

and when he's being investigated by the cops, he said that this finger came from our aunt, our deceased aunt. It's her finger. Which is a weird thing to say, especially because Anna Ayala said, all of my aunts are alive. I don't know what this guy's talking about,

even though he lives in my house. Yeah, what was he trying to get money? I don't know what that. That's the part I can't figure out. I couldn't find much on that guy. I don't know what the deal was. was. I also just saw references to a rumor that the media had been reporting on that it was her dead aunt's finger. So I didn't see how it came from him or what he was trying to do with that. But that was a

thing. But that was just kind of like a little side thread that I think also made the cops a little more suspicious too. Like that's just a weird thing to say, even jokingly. Yeah, but they did actually get, while it didn't lead to whose finger it was, that tip line did yield some stuff at first, right? So, yeah. So like you said, Wendy set up a tip line, a hotline that you could call in. And what they were looking for specifically ostensibly was whose finger it was. That's what they wanted information, the owner of the finger. But they were taking any and all tips that people called in. And they started offering 50 grand, like you said. They laid her up to 200 grand. And it started to yield some tips, like pretty much off the bat. I think the San Jose police and Wendy's is funneling this information to the cops as it comes in, like as good tips come in. But two very early on came in from what the San Jose police said. There were two different people who supposedly did not know each other, who told very similar stories about how Anna Ayala had told them

that she was fleecing Wendy's, that all of this was just a fraud for money to extort money from Wendy's in a lawsuit. So that combined with all the evidence that Wendy's had gathered, the finger had not come from inside their store. All of Anna Ayala's background, all of that put together really turned the tide, not just on a police investigation, but also on the media against Anna Ayala.

And she had started this, she had created a huge media circus around this issue. Like she went on Good Morning America. And I could not find it. I think Good Morning America just took the video down. They probably just burned it. Because she just went on and lied, lied, lied through her teeth about what had happened and just pointed at Wendy's and said like these guys screwed up

and this is the most disgusting thing that could happen to somebody and I'm torn up inside about it and they should pay on national news about a week after the incident. Yeah, so like you said, this is all playing out pretty quickly. It's all over the news. It's all over late night talk show comedy. Just bad joke after bad joke coming out of Jay Leno's mouth. I won't even repeat the one that Ed included.

I like the Letterman one. Did you see Letterman's? What was his? He said that she'd been spotted going back at Wendy's and ordering chili again because she was going back to collect all five. That's good. Yeah, you've got to give it up for Letterman. What was Leno's something about him?

The chili now comes with fingernail clippers. The side of fingernail clippers. And that really just encapsulates the difference between those two men. It does. Although they have their joke writers, but still. The love of cars, I think, is also a big differentiator. I don't think Letterman really cares about cars. Shout out to Brian Kylie and Rob Kutner.

Shout out to the mid-90s Letterman Book of Top Ten List that helped shape me as a human being. Brian and Rob are Conan O'Brien's monologue joke writers and have been for many, many years. Did I tell you, Yumi and I went to see Conan O'Brien live with Ron Funches and a couple of other people. Yeah, was that good? Do some stand? Oh, it's so good. And we actually turned out we were sitting next to a member of the SYSK Army throughout the show. Oh, no way.

Yeah, he was like, are you Josh and Yumi? We were like, yeah, it was a good guy, good kid. Yumi was like, I'm Yumi, but that's not Josh. Right. He's like, well, that's weird. I'm suspicious now. All right. Where were we?

All right, it's all over the news. this is all playing out very fast, but the drag net is sort of closing in thanks to Wendy's investigations, thanks to the cops getting involved. And Ms. Ayala is starting to feel the heat. And like anyone who, and I think the cat's out of the bag now, right? I think it was. She put the finger in the chili.

Yeah. Anytime someone does something like that, it seems like two things happen. They brag to their friends because they're dummies to begin with. and then that net starts to close and it all starts to fall apart. Right. So her response, and this is a pretty human response,

she basically said once the media spotlight went from sympathetic to her to, wait a minute, who are you again and how do you explain this thing and that thing and all this? She was like, never mind. Yeah, it's basically what she said. She said, you know, I can't handle this media spotlight or anything anymore,

so I'm just going to drop my lawsuit against Wendy's and we'll just forget all about this. Yeah. And Wendy said, no, we're not going to just forget all about this. No. Of course, I. Let's take a break, shall we? Yeah.

We're going to take a break. Chach. In the heat of battle, your squad at Lenovo. com. Dominate every match with next level speed. seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. Push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors. For the next era of gaming,

upgrade to smooth, high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E, and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Samihante, it's Anna Ortiz. And I'm Mark and Delicado. You might know us as Hilda. And Justin.

Ugly Betty. We played mother and son on the show, but in real life, we're best friends. And I'm all grown up now. Welcome to our new podcast. Viva Bethy! Yay! Woo-hoo!

Can you believe it has been almost 20 years? That's not even possible. Well, you're the only one that looks that much different. I look exactly the same. We're re-watching the series from start to finish and getting into all the fashions, the drama, and the behind-the-scenes moments that you've never heard before.

You're going to hear from guests like America Ferreira, Vanessa Williams, Michael Yuri, Becky Newton, Tony Plana, and so many more. Icons, each and every one. All of a sudden, like, someone, like, comes running up to me, and it's Selma Hayek. And she's like, you are my ugly Betty. And I was like, what is she even talking about? Listen to Viva Betty as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network, available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

The Rich Russians Falling Out of Windows podcast is back. Sad oligarch season two. Since we left you in 2023 after season one, many politically motivated Russia millionaires have continued to die in suspicious circumstances. We dig deeper into these odd deaths, which include everything from mushroom poisoning and mysterious heart attacks,

to window clumsiness and suicide by declares. recapitation. One thing we have found since we started back in 2022 is the information on the suspicious deaths has become much harder to find. Not just that, it seems as if state controlled media in Russia is being utilised to purposely confuse and contradict the reporting that gets put out. As you can probably imagine, season two gets very weird. Listen to sad oligarch on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. So I can't Surely when I can't

Surely when Anna Ayala was like Okay, I'm just going to drop the lawsuit And this will go away There had to only have been maybe one and a quarter percent of her brain that thought that that was actually going to work, that it was actually going to go away. She seems like streetwise and savvy enough to me that she knew it probably wasn't just going to go away,

that that was nothing but hope, right? I guess. I'm curious about that. Yeah, I don't know, man. But, like, the more that they poke into her private life, then you learn that she and her husband, James Placencia, had those a and this one's hard to get information on too from what I can tell is they sold a trailer a trailer park trailer that did not belong to them yes for $11,000 she did specifically I don't know that

he was involved he may have even owned the trailer but regardless she did not own the trailer sold it to a woman for $11,000 and later on the woman and her children were evicted from the trailer that they thought they owned that they didn't own. Yes. They also learned that her husband, I guess from her previous marriage, owed a lot of money and child support.

And so things are starting to fall into place to where they're like, this lady is always making up stories and suing companies. She's always looking for that get-rich angle. Her husband owes a ton of money. 400K. And so this is all sorting, they're starting to finger her, if you will, for this crime.

It's the worst fun ever. I thought we were going to make it through this, but now, I've even been saying tip line about the finger and just ignoring it. I know you did. But okay, all right, it's done, it's out there. So they finally, like you said, even though she was like, oh, let's just forget about it. They're like, no, no, no, we can't do that.

And then there enters a lady that just kind of, And it didn't end up having the hugest impact on the case itself, but it is worth mentioning this woman named Sandy Allman. This is a little strange. So this is a woman who owned exotic cats. Big cats. Leopards, Jaguars, tigers, I think. Is that how we're saying Jaguars now?

Jaguar? Yeah. Wow. That's how the Brit says it on the commercial. Is it a year-end sales event up in here? Yeah, the Jaguar X-12. So this lady owns these big cats This is not too far from Vegas

Where she lives in Parump, Nevada, I guess Or is it on the California side, do you know? I think it's Nevada Okay I don't know, actually, now that you mention it And she eventually, I guess, has to get rid of these cats And calls in a rescue group that does things like this They're like, we're a wild animal orphanage

And you're a dumb dumb who bought all these animals You shouldn't have had So now we will deal with it And during this transfer of animals She is attacked by a spotted leopard, and it bites off her finger. Yes. And she says, she comes forward and says, I think that is my finger. No, no.

I think actually a person who is at the wildlife rescue at the time was the one who called the tip line with that one. Oh, I thought because she wanted to take a DNA test and everything. Oh, I didn't see that. Okay. All right. Cool. So she's the one who called and said, that's my finger? Well, she wanted, I don't know if she literally picked up the phone and called.

Uh-huh. But she got involved such that she wanted to take a D&HS to find out if that was her finger. Gotcha. Okay, cool, cool. Well, yeah, because she had said that the last time she'd seen it, it was on ice in the emergency room. So I guess she wasn't the sentimental type who was like, I want my finger back. Would you? Oh, yeah.

Flood it in some formaldehyde? Yumi would probably have that thing gilded and wear it around her neck. Oh. Yeah. I'd be like, that's my finger on Yuby's neck. Check it out. but so the whole thing was just a red herring though a blind alley right like it it went nowhere no it was not her finger no there were some other tips that came in about the finger there were the Mexican authorities i guess

just over the border got involved because it was rumored that a incident with a ranch hand losing a finger in Mexico had been the source of the finger. Even as Anna Ayala, who by the way, that whole tip about the trailer sale, the trailer scam, that came in from Wendy's hotline as well. Oh, really? By this time, I believe it was day 22. No, I'm sorry, it was day 32, I believe. about a month after the incident originally happened,

Anna Ayala and Jamie Palencia, Plasencia, her husband, were both arrested in Las Vegas, him for the child support payments, failure to pay child support, her for that trailer scam. And so while they're on ice in Las Vegas, Wendy's is still conducting this investigation.

San Jose are still conducting this investigation. And they've got them. They have them on this other stuff, but I guess they just kind of kept, them from running and that's why they arrested them knowing that they were eventually going to build the case i'm not sure but that's exactly what happened because i think about 52 days after she walked into that wendies and put the finger in the chilling and took that bite um they they they charged them for grand theft for basically defrauding wendy's yeah and at this point

as far as the police were concerned they're like we don't even need to know whose finger this is at this point right like that that's really immaterial but when Indies, they still have a public relations crisis going on. And they're like, we really would like to find out where this finger came from. Just so, like, as many facts out there as possible will really help us restore our good name. Right. If we can actually pinpoint whose finger this is and exactly how this happened and let everybody know what went on. Yeah.

So they actually, that's when they up the reward from 50,000 to 100,000, right? That's right. And that's when they hit the jackpot, which is, ironically, they got two callers on the $100,000 line. Go ahead, caller. You're on the $100,000 chili finger line. And then for the next 30 seconds, like, hello, am I on? Can you hear me?

Yes, you're on. You're on. Go ahead, call her. Am I live right now? So they call, the two people call, one to this day, as far as I can tell, has remained anonymous. The other one was a guy named Mike Casey. And Mike Casey owned a company called Lamb Asphalt out of Las Vegas, Nevada.

And he happened to be the employer of Jamie Pleasantia. That's right. And he said, it's weird because you arrested one of my employees, one of my longtime employees for this scam. And I also have another employee named Brian Rossiter who lost a finger not too long ago. And I think they might be connected. I think that might be Brian Rossiter's finger. Yeah. And that's how the whole thing finally came crashing down

because they got a hold of Brian Rossiter. They gave them a DNA test. They matched it to the DNA taken from the finger. And they said it's Brian Rossiter's finger. Brian Rossiter worked with Jamie Placencia. Jamie Plasencia was married to Anna Ayala. Anna Ayala found a finger in her chili. Ipsop facto, something's rotten in Denmark, and that's how it stands.

Yeah, and it's even a little weirder when you find out the details. So, Brian is at work, someone slams the tailgate of the truck on his hand, cuts an inch and a half off of his finger. Can you imagine? No, dude. No. Cuts off his finger. And it's funny, too, because Ed points out, instead of, like, driving to the hospital, which is what any normal person would have done, he had owed Placencia some money. Placincia, and this is a man, a husband of a woman,

and it seems like they're both always looking to scam somebody. They're looking for the angle. He sees this finger, and he goes, hey, you owe me money. Some people say it was 50 bucks. We don't know for sure. I saw 100 almost everywhere. Okay, so let's say it's 100. Okay.

He's like, you give me that finger, and we'll just call it square. And not only that, my friend, but if you ever hear about this finger in the news, keep it quiet, and I will give you a quarter of a million dollars at some point in the future. Yep. That's what they call the carrot and the other carrot. Yeah. So he said, just drip some blood on this roof shingle, and that will be our contract. Right.

Right, right. Just sign X with your stub, your bloody stub. This old used roof shingle. I saw, actually, I saw that he did go to the hospital and came back to the work site with his amputated finger. And that's what Jamie Plissencia was like, I'm sure he did. What are you going to do with that? Any sense at all?

Yeah. That he would just be like, wait a minute. So they, so, so Brian Rossiter gives him his finger and that's where the whole thing began. Just a couple months before, right? Yeah, and I think didn't, didn't Rossiter himself also called the tip line? I didn't see that anywhere. Okay, I heard he called the tip line himself because he knew at this point he was getting no money out of the scam. So he thought, let me try and get this hundred grand at least.

Right. And Wendy's never would cop to whether or not he got any tip line money. Right. And so Mike Casey, the guy who from everything, it seems he was innocent of this, he just happened to put two and two together because he knew the guys. He said originally, hey, you know, my asphalt company maintains the lots of a few Wendy's around here, and they've always been good to me, so I wanted to help out. That was an article in May. An article in September is Mike Casey saying, you know, Wendy's never paid me that money for the hotline. So I don't know if he ever got it, but from what I saw,

he was going to have to split it with the one other anonymous caller. I don't know if that was Brian Rossiter or not. Maybe Brian Rossiter was scared that Jamie Placentio might do something if he found out that he had been, he had tipped him off or what. But supposedly Mike Casey and this anonymous caller were going to split that 100 grand. So whether Wendy's actually paid that money or not, that remains to be. I don't know. I didn't see that anywhere. Well, in the end,

Ayala and her husband, she got sentenced to nine years. He got sentenced to 12, because I think they piled on him for the probably child support, right? Or was it the trailer scam? Yeah, no, he got three and a third years for the child support thing. Oh, okay. I don't know how long he actually served. I think she only served about four of that nine.

she later revealed some more details including that she did cook the finger so apparently was not a it wasn't a raw finger nor though was it cooked in 170 degree chili for three hours but it was cooked a little bit I think she just literally probably put it in a pan

and was thinking like oh wait a minute I bet they didn't think I would think of this right And cooked up the finger a little bit. One thing that she didn't think of, though, Chuck, was she didn't bite the finger. And they found out pretty quickly through forensic investigation that there was no bite in the finger. Nor did she throw up in the restaurant like she said she did, because there were people in the restaurant that were like, no, she didn't vomit that I saw. And employees were like, no, she didn't throw up that I saw.

Her father-in-law and mother-in-law both said that they saw her throw up. But, yeah, there was no evidence of vomit anywhere in the bathroom or around her table or anything. Yeah, and they did a pretty bad job. Yeah, they did. I was going to use a nasty word to characterize it, but it's a family show. Well, these are the worst kind of people, man. These litigious, like, just, like, work for your money, man. Going around suing corporations?

I know. So mad. Wendy supposedly lost 2.5. million dollars in verifiable lost money they had to cut people's hours this is another thing that kind of gets left off a lot they had to cut the hours of the employees um in the bay area in particular because there was such little foot traffic coming through their stores so when they were convicted and sentenced jami pleasantia and anna ayala were um sentenced to pay back $170,000 plus dollars in lost wages to the Wendy's employees.

Oh, and they were also ordered to pay $500,000 to JEM management who owned the Wendy's, and then like another substantial amount to Wendy's if they ever profited from the crime. Man. Bad people. She was banned for Wendy's, which I don't know how you enforce that. Yeah, I was wondering that myself, actually. It seems like I don't know if there's every Wendy's. has a picture of her or something like that.

I know it's sports stadiums they do that when people are banned. And that is a little more enforceable because, like, you can literally just have everyone be aware of that person that's, like, checking tickets and things. But you can't, how can you keep someone from coming into any Wendy's anywhere? I don't know. They can try at least. They can send a message by saying, you can't come here any longer. Arby's Two Fingers, 2004, 2012. No.

Coal's frozen custard in Wilmington, North Carolina, finger, 2005. Oh, me. TGI Friday's hamburger had a finger in 2006. Wow. And those were all verified, and they found, you know, like, it was in the supply chain. Like, someone lost a finger and it got mixed in, and it's just very unfortunate. I'm sure there was quiet settlements on those. I'm sure, too.

That's bizarre. I had no idea that that happened. I thought it was almost always either a case of mistaken identity or, a hoax. I didn't realize that actually really happened, you know? Oh, yeah. Well, that's the Wendy's chili finger caper. If you ever wanted to know about it, now you do. And we're glad that you do. We're glad we're the ones that told you. If you want to know more about it, go read contemporary articles at the time. It's awesome just to see something like that unfold. It's so cool. And since I said that, it's time for listener mail. And hey, shout out to Wendy's. I'm sure

I don't know if they like people still talking about this or not, but they did not put a finger in anyone's chili. Yeah, good point, too. So I want to make that clear. Good point. All right, I'm going to call this Adidas Puma. Hey, guys, just finished listening to the feud between Adi and Rudy Dasler. I wanted to say, I really enjoyed it.

My dad is actually from Herzoggenach. We were an Adidas family through and through, and my godmother, Aunt Helga, worked for Adidas as an administration. of assistant for years. In addition to this, I almost jumped out of my seat when you mentioned the mayor of Herzog. You spoke of Dr. German Hocker and how he reft a soccer match wearing one Adita shoe and one Puma. My uncle Hans was the mayor right before Hawker was. Oh, cool. Yeah, I knew you wouldn't be referring to him because he wouldn't have been caught dead in even one Puma because of my aunt's work at the opposing shop. I didn't wear Puma gear

myself until I was grown and could buy it myself and my entire German family called me a traitor And this was in the early 2000, so the tension is still real. I'm sure it was lighthearted, at least I hope it was. Okay. In any case, I just want to let you know your research was spot on. We really love hearing about something I knew a little bit about. By the way, I also use your show in my classroom teaching 12th grade government in civics, and the kids love it. Nice.

So shout out to Jennifer Wessner-Gajot at Thompson Station's Tennessee and your senior government class. Well, thank you, Ms. Gizhou and class. That's probably not pronounced right. Gajot. I have no idea. Gaucho Ginev? Yeah. Gancho Ginev.

That's what it is. If you want to get in touch with us to say hi about an old episode or for whatever reason, you can go on to Stuff You Should Know.com. Check out our social media links. And you can also send us an email to Stuff Podcast at iHeartRadio.com. Stuff you should know is a production of IHeartRadio. For more podcasts to My Heart Radio, visit the IHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock Elite Gaming Tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. Push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors for the next era of gaming. Upgrade to smooth high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search.

Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Samihante, it's Anna Ortiz. And I'm Mark and Delicado. Might know us as Hilda and Justin from Ugly Betty. Welcome to our news. podcast. Viva Betty! Yay!

We're re-watching the series from start to finish. And talking to iconic guests like Betty herself, America Ferreira. There was this moment when the glasses went on and it was like, this is our Betty. Listen to Viva Betty on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's 1943. A king dies under mysterious circumstances in the middle of World War II. Is it murder? After 80 years of lies and cover-ups, his children need answers. And, you know, kissed us and said, I'll see you tonight. And we never saw him again. From exactly right and Blanchard House, the Butterfly King is a gripping historical true-crime

series that dives deep into royal secrets, wartime cover-ups, and a mystery that refuses to die. All episodes are available now. Listen to the Butterfly King on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.