Cops Raid Home of Fast-Food Finger Finder
Friday, April 08, 2005
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Investigators searched the Las Vegas home of a woman who claimed she scooped up a mouthful of finger along with her chili at a Wendy's restaurant last month.
City police, working with their counterparts in Las Vegas, served the warrant Wednesday as they investigated how a finger ended up in Anna Ayala's (search) bowl of chili.
"We are looking into every aspect in this case," San Jose police spokeswoman Gina Tepoorten said. "We are talking to people she knows as well as the finder of the finger. ... We want to determine who this finger belongs to and how it ended up in a bowl of chili."
Police would not say what was listed in the warrant.
Ayala, 39, was at the San Jose restaurant March 22 when she claimed she scooped up the 1½-long fingertip. She later filed a claim with the franchise owner, Fresno, Calif.-based JEM Management Corp. (search)
"Just knowing that there was a human remain in my mouth ... it is disgusting. It is tearing me apart inside," Ayala told ABC's "Good Morning America" on March 28.
Wendy's spokesman Bob Bertini would not comment on the police investigation.
There was no answer at a home phone number listed for an Anna Ayala in Las Vegas. However, she told the San Jose Mercury News she would like to know what police were looking for in her home.
"I've been dragged through the mud," she said. "We've been treated like animals. I've been through too much."
On Thursday, Wendy's announced it would give a $50,000 reward to the first person providing verifiable information leading to the positive identification of the origin of the finger.
"It's very important to our company to find out the truth in this incident," said Tom Mueller, Wendy's president and chief operating officer.
Wendy's maintains the finger did not enter the food chain in its ingredients. All the employees at the San Jose store were found to have all their fingers, and no suppliers of Wendy's ingredients have reported any hand or finger injuries, the company said.
The Santa Clara County (search) coroner's office, using a partial fingerprint to attempt to find a match in an electronic database, came up empty. DNA testing is still being conducted.
Saga of Severed Finger Found In Wendy's Chili Continues...
Hybrid Mode
