A Woman Claimed She Found a Finger in Wendy’s Chili—Where Is She Now?

It was an accusation so outrageous and startling that it made national news: On March 22, 2005, Anna Ayala claimed she discovered a severed human finger in her chili at a Wendy’s restaurant in San Jose, Calif. Customers were horrified. Wendy’s launched an internal investigation, and police from two different jurisdictions got involved.

However, it was all revealed to be an elaborate extortion attempt from a woman who had filed similar lawsuits in the past.

The San Jose Police Department and Santa Clara County Medical Examiner’s Office investigated and determined the finger did not come from any Wendy’s employee or anyone working at the facilities that provided ingredients for Wendy’s chili, casting doubt on Ayala’s claims. By April 6, police searched Ayala’s Las Vegas home for evidence, and on April 21, she was arrested on multiple charges, including felony attempted grand theft.

Law enforcement discovered Ayala’s claim was a hoax in a manner almost as strange as the false accusation. The medical examiner concluded that the finger “was not consistent with an object that had been cooked in chili at 170 degrees for three hours,” which indicated the finger had been planted in Ayala’s meal. Furthermore, two of the items seized from Ayala’s home were a plastic shopping bag and red plastic lunchbox.

On May 19, the Los Angeles Times reported that DNA testing had identified the finger as belonging to Brian Paul Rossiter, and that Rossiter was cooperating with law enforcement. Rossiter, a former co-worker of Ayala’s husband, Jaime Plascencia, lost the finger when his hand was trapped in a mechanical truck lift. Investigators said he later sold Plascencia the finger and that Plascencia “advised that he intended to use the finger to create a lawsuit by planting the finger in food at an undisclosed restaurant.”

On September 9, 2005, less than six months after “discovering” the finger in her chili, Ayala pleaded guilty to presenting a false or fraudulent insurance claim and attempted grand theft of personal property over $400 as well as another charge of grand theft related to a mobile home sale. She was sentenced to nine years in prison; however, she successfully appealed her sentence in 2007 and had it reduced to four years. Ayala was then released on parole in 2009.

For his involvement in the Wendy’s extortion scheme as well as other charges, Plascencia was sentenced to 12 years and four months behind bars. Yet as if that wasn’t surprising enough, it also came to light that Ayala had tried a similar scheme before.

All the media attention around Wendy’s led to the reveal that Ayala had filed several other lawsuits in the past, including one against another restaurant chain. She had previously sued El Pollo Loco, claiming that a Las Vegas location served chicken that made her 13-year-old daughter ill.

Ayala said she received a $30,000 settlement from El Pollo Loco, but the Los Angeles Times reported that the company never paid her anything.

Furthermore, The Mercury News reported that Ayala had a history of filing different lawsuits in both Las Vegas and the Bay Area, dating back to 1996. In 1999, she and Plascencia were sued by a San Jose auto dealership for writing a $1,900 bad check. After the company won that lawsuit, Ayala sued the dealership, claiming a tire fell off a car they bought there. Her suit was dismissed, and per The Mercury News, she never paid the judgment against her.

In the immediate aftermath of Ayala’s claims, there was a steep effect on Wendy’s, especially that specific San Jose location. Store management said revenue dropped by 50% afterward, which in turn forced them to cut employees’ hours and take money out of workers’ pockets. Before Ayala’s arrest, the company also offered up to $100,000 for anyone who had information that could identify the severed finger.

However, after Ayala was arrested, the fast-food chain did its best to turn a negative situation into a positive one. They held a promotion in the Bay Area offering customers free Frosty desserts the weekend of Ayala’s arrest and then expanded that promotion to all Wendy’s nationwide from May 13 to 15, 2005.

One of the components of Ayala’s sentence entailed that she and her husband pay $21 million in restitution to Wendy’s, as prosecutors claimed the company lost approximately that much money due to the false accusations. Ayala was also banned for life from every Wendy’s location, though this was not part of her sentence.

The Wendy’s case was not Ayala’s last brush with the law. In 2013, she pleaded no contest to a series of charges related to the shooting of her son, Guadalupe Reyes. Reyes accidentally shot himself, but Ayala filed a false police report claiming that he was shot by two assailants. She was trying to cover up the fact that Reyes could not legally possess a firearm due to being on parole at the time of the incident.

However, he eventually told the truth to police, and Ayala was charged with filing a false police report and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Her no contest plea led to her being sentenced to another two years behind bars.

She then resurfaced in the news a third time when, in 2024, the New York Times quoted her in a story asking people who they planned to vote for in that year’s presidential election. Almost two decades later, social media users still recognized Ayala’s name from the Wendy’s incident, with the Independent reporting that one unnamed user called her “Ms. Severed Chili Finger.” The Times editors removed her quote and issued a retraction.