UPDATE: Wendy's Chili Finger Debate Continues

Astute readers will remember this post, in which I discussed the odd case of a finger appearing in a woman's 99 cent Wendy's chili. The woman's trying to sue the restaurant chain, which is proclaiming its innocence. Its innocence of serving the woman a human finger. They'll freely admit to serving a woman 99 cent chili.

So, as the finger remained uncooked and no Wendy's staff seems to be missing a digit, it appears possible that the woman merely faked the incident so she could make some money off of Wendy's. Which is a really dumb plan, particularly if you don't bother to make the finger look like it had been cooked inside a bowl of chili. Also, how can you convince your friend to cut off their finger so you can stick it in a cup of chili? Ask real nicely? Remind them about that time you picked them up at the airport even though it was 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday?

So now it seems the finger may have come into the woman's possession by way of a leopard attack. No, really.

San Jose police are investigating a woman who had part of her finger bitten off in late February by a pet leopard.

The woman, who has several exotic animals, reportedly got her finger back in a bag of ice after doctors couldn't reattach it. She lives in a town about 45 miles north of Las Vegas, according to an Associated Press report.

So, see, there you go. A perfectly logical explanation. This woman already knew someone who was missing a finger. Better yet, this person had access to their own amputated digit, and seemed willing enough to part with it for a chance at taking down a major corporation.

Wednesday, Anna Ayala dropped her claim against Wendy's because it "has caused her great emotional distress and continues to be difficult emotionally," said her attorney, Jeffrey Janoff.

Oh, did I say that it's possible she made the whole thing up? I meant, she definitely made the whole thing up. There's no way a person would drop this kind of a lawsuit just because of media attention unless it were fraudulent.

So this leaves only one question...Has Anna Ayala actually done anything illegal? I mean, yeah, there's filing a false police report. But otherwise, I'm pretty sure she's in the clear. How can they really punish you for claiming to have found a finger in your chili that actually belonged to your leopard-fearing friend?

I would have liked to overhear the conversation when Ayala presented her plan to her fingerless friend.

"Anyway, you still have that finger, right? You doing anything with it?...Well, I had an idea. Why don't we put it in my chili at Wendy's?...Cause they'll give me a big cash settlement...I won't actually eat any of the chili...No, I'm sure the finger's perfectly clean, I didn't mean it like that at all...Just it would be kind of gross...Oh, fine, just forget it...I'll call that girl who lost her finger in the leopard attack instead! You're no fun!"