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Woman Finds Human Finger In Chili

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 24, 2005

(CBS/AP) A woman bit into a portion of a human finger while eating a bowl of chili at a Wendy's fast food restaurant, health officials said.

Officials said the fingertip was about one and a half inches long and contained part of a manicured nail. The woman immediately spit it out, Santa Clara County Health Officer Martin Fenstersheib said.

And while it gave the woman -- Anna Ayala, 39, of Las Vegas -- a bad case of the willies, it likely caused no physical illness, officials said.

That's because the finger was safely cooked, simmering along at 170 degrees with more traditional chili ingredients, such as tomatoes, beef and beans.

"She was a bit grossed out it was described to me, and vomited a number of times," Fenstersheib said.

At about 7:20 p.m. Tuesday, Ayala, in town with her family to drop off her in-laws who live in San Jose, scooped up a mouthful of chili.

It was her first visit to a Wendy's. "I'm more of a Carl's Jr. person," she said Thursday night in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News.

"Suddenly something crunchy was in my mouth," she said, "and I spit it out."

After much examination, she and her tablemates realized just what the special ingredient was. Then the vomiting commenced.

Police and county health officials were called to the Wendy's, but no one there was missing any digits.

"We had everyone kind of show us they had 10 fingers, and everything was OK there," Ben Gale, director of the county's Department of Environmental Health, told the paper.

Health investigators seized all the ingredients at the restaurant and are tracing them back to their manufacturer. They believe the finger got into the chili at an earlier stage and was cooked at a high enough temperature to kill any viruses. Since it was a jagged cut, officials believe it may have happened on a meat grinder.

Wendy's spokesman Joe Desmond said the company was cooperating with the investigation.

"It's important not to jump to conclusions," he said. "Here at Wendy's we plan to do right by our customers."



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