Woman Finds Human Finger in Wendy's Chili
Thursday March 24, 2005
From the "Things That Sound Like Urban Legends but Aren't" file...
A woman dining at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, California received the shock of her life last Tuesday when she realized the odd-shaped morsel she had just bitten into in a spoonful of chili was a human finger (see photos). County health officials confirmed the incident, saying the victim was unlikely to suffer serious health effects — apart from extreme nausea brought on by utter horror and revulsion, that is — because the digit, believed to be that of an adult female, was fully cooked.
The foreign object was described by County Medical Examiner Dr. Joseph P. O'Hara in the San Francisco Chronicle as follows: "The finger was found in two pieces, a one and three-eighths inch long fingertip complete with the skin whorls used in fingerprinting, and a half-inch long piece of fingernail. The joint appeared to have been torn off, possibly by manufacturing machinery, rather than cleanly cut." Yum.
The big mystery, of course, is how it ended up in a bowl of Wendy's chili in the first place. Since none of the restaurant's employees were missing any fingers, investigators assume the severed finger "entered the food chain" during the manufacture of the raw ingredients used to make the chili.
Updates:
Police Search Home of Wendy's Finger Finder Top 10 Actual Headlines in Wendy's Finger-in-Chili Coverage 'Finger Finder' Arrested in Wendy's Chili Hoax! Wendy's 'Chili Finger' Scammers Go to Jail
Sources and further reading:
Woman Bites into Finger at San Jose Restaurant - SF Chronicle Slideshow: Finger in Wendy's Chili - Local6.com
A woman dining at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, California received the shock of her life last Tuesday when she realized the odd-shaped morsel she had just bitten into in a spoonful of chili was a human finger (see photos). County health officials confirmed the incident, saying the victim was unlikely to suffer serious health effects — apart from extreme nausea brought on by utter horror and revulsion, that is — because the digit, believed to be that of an adult female, was fully cooked.
The foreign object was described by County Medical Examiner Dr. Joseph P. O'Hara in the San Francisco Chronicle as follows: "The finger was found in two pieces, a one and three-eighths inch long fingertip complete with the skin whorls used in fingerprinting, and a half-inch long piece of fingernail. The joint appeared to have been torn off, possibly by manufacturing machinery, rather than cleanly cut." Yum.
The big mystery, of course, is how it ended up in a bowl of Wendy's chili in the first place. Since none of the restaurant's employees were missing any fingers, investigators assume the severed finger "entered the food chain" during the manufacture of the raw ingredients used to make the chili.
Updates:
Sources and further reading:
Comments
I live close to where this happened. While it was a real finger, it was not from Wendy’s. The lady put it in there herself to try and make money. It wasn’t true. It was a hoax the whole time!
I am seconding Sophia. The woman is now embroiled in litigation, and being sued by Wendy’s for defamation, and for the amount of $ that was lost in sales due to the woman’s actions.
Please update this article to reflect the current status of the whole affair, as the truth was “fiction” after all.
Ok if it was a real finger that she put in there…where the hell did she get the finger??!