Mar 23, 2005 12:27 pm US/Pacific

A woman who ordered chili at a San Jose Wendy's Restaurant found a cooked human finger in her bowl.

The Wendy's on Monterey Highway was still open Thursday while the Santa Clara County Health Department investigated. But officials there said it was definitely a human finger -- complete with a long manicured fingernail -- and it probably did not come from a Bay Area Wendy's employee.

"We have no evidence of any accident within the employees at the facility itself," said Ben Gale of the Santa Clara County Health Department. "We've asked everybody to show us they have ten fingers and everything is OK there."

The incident came to light about 7:20pm Wednesday, when the woman called 911.

"Initially she did put this object in her mouth and did bite down on it," said Dr. Marty Fensterscheib of the Santa Clara County Health Department. "Initially, she was a bit grossed out ... and vomited a number of times."

The fingerprint is mutilated, but officials believe there might be enough there to run the print through a national computer to try to find the owner. The finger has jagged edges, which means it was likely lacerated by a machine -- possibly a meat grinder.

The health department says Wednesday's batch of chili was likely cooked at a hot enough temperature to kill any diseases, so nobody should get sick from eating there. Health officials are trying to trace where the ingredients came from, but they've decided it's OK for the store to remain open in the meantime.

"We are as anxious as anyone else to get to the bottom of this," said Wendy's spokesperson Bob Bertini.


And according to the book Fast Food Nation, fingers get in the food a lot more than you'd think. Usually they get ground up with the meat in the grinder. :sick:

Oh my god..

this must be a nightmare for that person :sick:

That happens all the time :)

I once found a fingernail in a marshmallow.

Just explain one thing please...
If it was cut of by the meat grinder - how come the finger stayed intact? It should have been grind and of an unrecognisable shape just like the rest ofd the meat. Were they able to recognise cow's livers among that meat or something?
If the finger really was there it had to come from another source...

Still makes me feel :sick:

Yeah I read about this story today in my newspaper, man what a terrible feeling.

This kind of thing happens all the time. 99% of the time it's planted there by a customer trying to make a fast buck by sueing the companies involved (as was the case where someone found a chicken's head in McDonald's)

I don't like to eat in restaurants that much, but once they found a rat, a whole rat!!!! in bread :blink:, and that was a bread from a bakery so you can't be sure what's in your every day meal anyway, not to mention that many restaurants have roaches and such lurking about...

I have a question..

if the finger was intact, with apparently a long fingernail, how exactly did this woman get it in her mouth without noticing it?

Without using a shovel or something, I mean?

At least, my spoonfuls aren't typically human-finger-sized...