Police Identify Finger Found in Chili

Police announced Friday that the finger a woman said she found in a cup of Wendy’s chili in San Jose belonged to an acquaintance of her husband.

“It is a pretty damning piece of evidence,” said Sgt. Nick Muyo of the San Jose Police Department. “This is a pretty significant break in the case.”

San Jose police detectives received a tip from the Wendy’s reward hotline May 4 that led them to Nevada, where they tracked down a man who lost the digit in an industrial accident in December. The man, whose name was not released, was identified as the source of the fingertip through “scientific testing,” police said.

Detectives did not elaborate, but said they determined that the man gave the 1 1/2 -inch-long fragment to James Plascencia of Las Vegas. He is the husband of Anna Ayala, 39, who was arrested last month at her Las Vegas home and transferred last week to California to face charges of attempted grand theft.

She is in custody in Milpitas, Calif., and has a bail hearing set for Wednesday, Muyo said.

A criminal complaint filed by prosecutors said her report of a finger in a cup of chili cost Wendy’s at least $2.5 million in lost business.

“The whole dimension of the case has changed slightly,” said Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Karyn Sinunu. “We now have to see if other people conspired to commit this hoax.”

Sinunu said it will take a few weeks to review the case and decide whether to bring new charges against Ayala.

The finger saga started March 22 when Ayala told police that she bit down on a finger fragment at a Wendy’s in San Jose. Investigators determined early on that the finger did not belong to restaurant employees and later ruled out that it had come from the suppliers of ingredients used to make the chili.

A fingerprint was put through an FBI database to no avail. At one point, police looked into a possible connection with a woman who lost part of her finger in a leopard attack at an exotic animal compound in Pahrump, a rural Nevada town about 60 miles west of Las Vegas.

Ayala immediately filed a claim against the fast-food chain but decided not to sue one week after her home was searched by authorities and her litigious history came to light.

According to court records, Ayala sued an El Pollo Loco restaurant in Las Vegas after her 13-year-old daughter allegedly got sick after eating there. Ayala said she received a $30,000 settlement, but El Pollo Loco officials deny it.

Ayala also filed a sexual harassment suit against a former employer in 1998. Two years later, she sued General Motors Corp., Goodyear Tire Corp. and a San Jose car dealership, alleging that a defective car caused an accident. Both cases were dismissed.

Denny Lynch, senior vice president of communications for the Dublin, Ohio-based restaurant chain, said he was thrilled with Friday’s announcement.

“The pieces of the puzzle are coming together,” he said. “Based on the reported evidence, there can be no doubt that we are completely vindicated.”

He said Wendy’s sales are slowly on the rise after being dragged down as much as 50%, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. Wendy’s representatives and police will meet to discuss disposition of the $100,000 reward offered by the company, Muyo said.

This weekend, Wendy’s is offering free Junior Frostys at all participating locations as a thank you to its customers. “Coincidentally, we were using this weekend to kind of restart our sales nationwide,” Lynch said. “We are hopeful that Americans will remember Wendy’s like they did before March 22.”