Selects: The Great Finger in the Wendy’s Chili Caper

26:37I think the San Jose police and Wendy's is funneling this information to the cops, um, as it comes in, as good tips come in. Um, 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 Ana 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, that combined with all the evidence that Wendy's had gathered that it, the finger had not come from inside their store. Um, all of, uh, Ana Ayala's background, uh, all of that put together really turned the tide, not just on a police investigation, but also on the media against Donna Ayala.

27:27And 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.

28:11It'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 got to give it up for Leatherman. What was Leno's? Something about them? They don't, the chili now comes with fingernail clippers. The side of the fingernail clippers. And that really just encapsulates the difference between those two men.

28:46It does. Although they have their joke writers, but still. The love of cars, I think, is also a big differentiator. Yeah. I don't think Letterman really cares about cars. Shout out to Brian Kiley and Rob Kuttner. Shout out to the mid-90s Letterman book of top 10 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, you and me 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-up? Oh, it was so good. And we actually turned out we were sitting next to a member of the SYSK army throughout the show.

29:25Oh, no way. Yeah, he was like, are you Josh and Yumi? We were like, yeah. He 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 dragnet is sort of closing in thanks to Wendy's investigations. Thanks to the cops getting involved. And Miss 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.

30:05They 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.

30:39Wendy's said, no, we're not going to just forget all about this. No, of course not. Let's take a break, shall we? Yeah. We're going to take a break.

31:00New year, new goals, and in this economy, a better money plan is more necessary than ever. I am Matt. And I'm Joel. We are from the How to Money podcast. And every week, we help you to spend smarter, save more, and make sense of what's going on out there. If you want 2026 to be the year you finally feel in control of your money, we're here to give you the tools and advice to help you make it happen. Listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanka Wally. And I'm Hari Kondabolu. It's a new year, and on the podcast Health Stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health.

31:35Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? We talk to experts who share real experiences and insight. You just really need to find where it is that you can have an impact in your own life and just start doing that. We break down the topics you want to know more about. Sleep, stress, mental health, and how the world around us affects our overall health. We talk about all the ways to keep your body and mind inside and out healthy. We human beings, all we want is connection.

32:14We just want to connect with each other. Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, this is Dr. Jesse Mills, director of the Men's Clinic at UCLA Health and host of the Mailroom Podcast. Each January, guys everywhere make the same resolutions. Get stronger, work harder, fix what's broken. But what if the real work isn't physical at all? To kick off the new year, I sat down with Dr. Steve Poulter, a psychologist with over 30 years experience helping men unpack shame, anxiety, and emotional pain they were never taught to name.

32:52In a powerful two-part conversation, we discuss why men aren't emotionally bulletproof, why shame hides in plain sight, and how real strength comes from listening to yourself and to others. Guys who are toxic, they're immature, or they've got something they just haven't resolved. Once that gets resolved, then there comes empathy as in compassion. If you want this to be the year you stop powering through pain and start understanding what's underneath, listen to The Mailroom on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.

33:35Stop. Stop. Just stay on the surface. Seriously. So I can't, surely when Ana 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, 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, and this one's hard to get information on too.

34:27From 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 in child support. And so things are starting to fall into place to where they're like, this lady is always making up stories in suing companies.

35:11She'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 pun ever. I thought we were going to make it through this, but no. 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.

35:55This 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 X12. So this lady owns these big cats. this is not too far from Vegas where she lives in Pahrump, 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.

36:39They're like, we're a wild animal orphanage, and you're a dum-dum who bought all these animals you shouldn't have had. So now we will deal with it. And during this transfer of animals, she's 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?

37:13Well, she wanted, I don't know if she literally picked up the phone and called, but she got involved such that she wanted to take a DNA test 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. Float 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 Yumi's neck. Check it out. But so the whole thing was just a red herring, though, a blind alley, right?

37:50Like it went nowhere. No, it was not her finger. No. There were some other tips that came in about the finger. The Mexican authorities, I guess, just over the border got involved because it was rumored that an incident with a ranch hand losing a finger in Mexico had been the source of the finger. um as even as anna ayala who by the way that whole tip about the trailer um sale yeah the trailer scam that came in from wendy's hotline as well oh really by this time i believe it was day uh 22 no i'm sorry it was day 30 32 i believe about a month after the the incident originally happened. Ana Ayala and Jamie Palencia, her husband, were both arrested in Las Vegas.

38:46Him 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 Wendy's and put the finger in the chili and took that bite, they charged them for grand theft for basically defrauding Wendy's.

39:24Yeah, and at this point, as far as the police were concerned, they were like, we don't even need to know whose finger this is at this point. Right. Like that's really immaterial. But Wendy's, 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?

40:04That's right. And that's when they hit the jackpot, which is ironically, they got two callers on the hundred thousand dollar line. Go ahead, caller. You're on the one hundred thousand dollar chili finger line. And then for the next 30 seconds, like, hello, am I am I on? Can you hear me? Yes, you're on. You're on. Go ahead, caller. Go ahead, caller. Am I live right now? So they call the two people called 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 Plasencia.

40:45That'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. And that's how the whole thing finally came crashing down because they got a hold of Brian Rossiter. They gave him 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 Plasencia. Jamie Plasencia was married to Ana Ayala.

41:24Ana Ayala found a finger in her chili. Ipso 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 a 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 Placentia some money. Placentia, and this is a man, a husband of a woman, and it seems like they're both always looking to scam somebody.

42:08They'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.

42:47Right. Right, right. Just sign X with your stub, your bloody stub. Yeah, 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 Plasencia was like. Hey, 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 of months before. Right. Yeah. And I think didn't didn't Rossiter himself also call the tip line. I didn't see that anywhere.

43:21OK. 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$100 ,000 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 pay 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 Plasencio might do something if he found out that he had been, he had tipped him off or what.

44:19But supposedly Mike Casey and this anonymous caller were going to split that$100 ,000. So whether Wendy's actually paid that money or not, that remains to be seen. 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.

45:04Yeah. So apparently it wasn't a raw finger, nor, though, was it cooked in 170-degree chili for three hours. Right. 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.

45:46And 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 in verifiable lost money. They had to cut people's hours.

46:28This is another thing that kind of gets left off a lot. They had to cut the hours of the employees in the Bay Area in particular because there was such little foot traffic coming through their stores. So when they were convicted and sentenced, Jamie Plasencia and Ana Ayala were sentenced to pay back$170 ,000 plus 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 another substantial amount to Wendy's if they ever profited from the crime. Man, bad people. She was banned from Wendy's, which I don't know how you enforce that.

47:12Yeah, I was wondering that myself, actually. It seems like I don't know if every Wendy's has a picture of her or something like that. I know at 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. Cole's frozen custard in Wilmington, North Carolina, finger, 2005.

47:51Oh, man. CGI 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 were quiet settlements on those. I'm sure, too. It'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.

48:29We're glad we were 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.

48:44And 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. Just 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 Dassler. Wanted to say I really enjoyed it. My dad is actually from Herzoginnerach. We were an Adidas family through and through. And my godmother, Aunt Helga, worked for Adidas as an administrative assistant for years. In addition to this, I almost jumped out of my seat when you mentioned the mayor of Herzog.

49:21You spoke of Dr. German Hocker and how he reffed a soccer match wearing one Adidas shoe and one Puma. My uncle Hans was the mayor right before Hocker 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 2000s, so the tension is still real. Wow. 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.

49:55Really 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 and Civics. And the kids love it. Nice. So shout out to Jennifer Wessner Gajot at Thompson Stations, Tennessee, and your senior government class. well thank you Ms. Gajot and class that's probably not pronounced right Gajot? I have no idea Gajot Ganev? yeah Ganchot Ganev 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 stuffyoushouldknow.com check out our social media links and you can also send us an email to stuffpodcast at iheartradio.com Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.

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51:01Hey, it's Joel. And Matt. From HowToMoney. If your New Year's resolution is to finally get your finances in shape, we've got your back. Prices, they're still high, and the economy is all over the place. But 2026 is the year for you to get intentional and make real progress. That's right. Each week we break down what's happening with your money, the most important issues to focus on, and the small moves that make a big difference. Kick off the year with confidence. Listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm John Polk. For years, I was the poster boy of the conversion therapy movement.

51:38the ex-gay who married an ex-lesbian and traveled the world telling my story of how I changed my sexuality from gay to straight. You might have heard my story, but you've never heard the real story. John has never been anything but gay, but he really tried hard not to be. Listen to Atonement, the John Palk story on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanka Wally. And I'm Hari Kondabolu. It's a new year. And on the podcast Health Stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be.

52:19I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? Health Stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.