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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Couple jailed over Wendy's finger scam |
| 2006-01-19 |
| A couple who planted a human finger in a bowl of chilli at a Wendy's fast food restaurant has been sentenced in California to nine years in prison. "Greed and avarice overtook this couple and they lost their moral compass," Judge Edward Davila said of Anna Ayala and her husband Jaime Plascencia in handing down the nine-year sentence. The scam caused a sharp fall in sales at the third-largest US burger chain, resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue and a lingering impact to this day, officials say. Plascencia was given another three years and four months for not paying support for the five children he has with another woman in an unrelated case, giving him a total sentence of 12 years, four months behind bars. Mr Davila also ordered the couple to pay almost $26.7 million in restitution but Wendy's officials indicated to the court they would only seek to collect approximately $227,000, representing the wages lost by employees at the San Jose restaurant where working hours were cut back after a downturn in business. "The crimes committed by the defendants have done immeasurable damage to Wendy's image, not only in northern California, but across the country," Denny Lynch, a Wendy's senior vice president, told the court. Her apology: "I am truly sorry. I owe Wendy's and its employees an apology," a sobbing Ayala told the court. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 "I am truly sorry [that I got caught]. I owe Wendy's and its employees an apology [and a sh*tload of money]," a sobbing Ayala told the court. "Wendy's had always been my family's favourite fast-food restaurant [and, 'til recently, our favorite target for fraud]." She called her actions "a moment of poor judgement [--if I may call countless days and nights of plotting and intrigue 'a moment']" and told her family: "For all the shame I brought upon them I am sorry, I am so sorry. [However, I am still sorrier that I got caught.]" |
| Posted by: Dar 2006-01-19 13:32 |
| #3 vid of the lovely couple being gifted just desserts. Video Link |
| Posted by: RD 2006-01-19 13:21 |
| #2 If Laugh-In were still on the air, these folks would be shoo-ins for the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate" award. |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-01-19 10:30 |
| #1 Her finger story had all the right elements: ick factor, fast food contamination and the mystery of the finger itself. Wendy's offered a reward of $50,000 for information about the source of the finger, later doubling it. At one point, Sandy Allman, a Nevada woman, came forward and suggested the fingertip belonged to her, lost during a tiger attack. It was not hers, instead turning out to have belonged to a coworker of Ayala's husband at a paving company. The unfortunate victim, Brian Paul Rossiter, lost the digit on the job when his hand was caught in a truck lift mechanism. Hey Rossi, give me da finger dude.... no, no, no, the one lying on the floor.... I'm sick of this hot asphalt job. I now have a neat Chilli idea, eheheheheez. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-01-19 08:11 |