It began as the ultimate American fast-food horror story: A woman eating at a Wendy's in San Jose last month told authorities she found part of a human finger in her cup of chili.
Lawyers were called. DNA and fingerprint tests were performed. Diners in the Bay Area gave a very wide berth to local Wendy's restaurants -- sales plunged at least 20 percent, according to local news accounts.
Genesis Reyes, 13, right, said police hurt her arm as they searched the Las Vegas home of her mother, Anna Ayala, the complainant.
(K.m. Cannon -- Las Vegas Review-journal Via AP)
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But the plot, like the chili, thickened last week. Investigators announced they had found no one anywhere along the food production line -- all the way back to the place where the beans were canned -- who was missing a finger.
Suspicion then turned to the woman who found the well-manicured, well-cooked digit -- Anna Ayala, 39, whose Las Vegas home was searched by police. The San Jose Mercury News reported that Ayala had been involved in many other lawsuits, including one against another fast-food chain.
But no charges have been filed against Ayala or anyone else. On Tuesday, Ayala announced she would not sue Wendy's, saying she has suffered too much emotional trauma. She has denied planting the finger in the chili.
Sandy Allman of Pahrump, Nev., briefly caused a stir by laying claim to the finger -- one of hers was recently chomped off by a leopard she kept on her property, and later vanished from the hospital. But authorities cast doubt on the theory, noting that the chili finger was an inch and a half long, and the big-cat fan had lost only three-quarters of an inch.
Meanwhile, the Wendy's chain is offering a $50,000 reward and is keeping a hotline open for finger tips -- tips on the finger, that is.
-- Amy Argetsinger
