CosmicCowboy
04-14-2005, 11:31 AM
this thing just keeps getting stranger and stranger...
Resident has her finger in chili case
Web Posted: 04/14/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Scott Huddleston
Express-News Staff Writer
A key tip in the bizarre case of a finger in a cup of chili may have come from San Antonio.
Carol Asvestas, executive director of Wild Animal Orphanage, believes the digit either found or planted in chili purchased at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, Calif., might be linked to an incident near Las Vegas, where the woman who reported the finger lives.
Asvestas and three other animal rescuers from Texas were visiting a Nevada animal facility when they saw Sandy Allman reach into a chain link enclosure to pet her spotted leopard, Anthony, on Feb. 23. Allman was encouraging the others to pet her cats when Anthony bit off the end of one finger.
After news surfaced of Anna Ayala's claim of finding a fingertip in her chili on March 22, some who had seen the leopard attack joked that the digit was the same one they'd fished out of Anthony's cage with a stick a month earlier.
But when police last week searched Ayala's Las Vegas home, they wondered if that idea was more than a joke. Finally, Asvestas reported a possible link to Wendy's on Tuesday.
"I never put two and two together" until she compared a photo of Allman's fingertip with one of the finger in the Wendy's case early Tuesday, she said.
Both photos show a fingertip about 11/2 inches long, with a roughly severed edge.
San Jose police are investigating a possible connection, the San Jose Mercury News reported Wednesday.
Allman was bitten at All Acting Animals in Pahrump, Nev., about 45 miles southeast of Las Vegas. The facility once furnished animals for films and television ads. But it declined, its animals living poorly and in squalor, Asvestas said.
Allman, who helped run the place, was saying "my babies would never hurt me" when she was bitten, Asvestas said.
Cindy Carroccio, director of the Austin Zoo, a nonprofit rescue zoo in southwestern Travis County, gave a similar account.
"It went like this. She (Allman) was saying 'They're just my babies. They would just ... Oh, my God!' and then she runs off.
"Everyone was running around. It was like a Keystone Cops movie," she said. "Someone looked down at the cage and said, 'I think it's her fingertip.' I took pictures and hosed it off."
Carroccio said she later saw the fingertip in a plastic bag with ice. A day later, Allman had a bandaged finger, but did not have the tip reattached.
Six tigers and two leopards were moved from Pahrump to the Wild Animal Orphanage. One leopard, Anthony's sister, is now at the Austin Zoo.
Asvestas said she hoped her report would help solve the case. Ayala has decided not to pursue legal action, but Wendy's has offered a $50,000 reward for information on the finger's origin.
Although she wasn't counting on a reward, Asvestas said she'd use any money to help care for the more than 600 animals at the orphanage.
The leopard that bit Allman's finger remains at the Pahrump site, in a 90-day quarantine.
"It's a shame that he's having to stay where he's already been suffering," Asvestas said.
So while most exotic animals have been removed, the cat that could be at the middle of the high-profile case has yet to see a happy ending.
Resident has her finger in chili case
Web Posted: 04/14/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Scott Huddleston
Express-News Staff Writer
A key tip in the bizarre case of a finger in a cup of chili may have come from San Antonio.
Carol Asvestas, executive director of Wild Animal Orphanage, believes the digit either found or planted in chili purchased at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, Calif., might be linked to an incident near Las Vegas, where the woman who reported the finger lives.
Asvestas and three other animal rescuers from Texas were visiting a Nevada animal facility when they saw Sandy Allman reach into a chain link enclosure to pet her spotted leopard, Anthony, on Feb. 23. Allman was encouraging the others to pet her cats when Anthony bit off the end of one finger.
After news surfaced of Anna Ayala's claim of finding a fingertip in her chili on March 22, some who had seen the leopard attack joked that the digit was the same one they'd fished out of Anthony's cage with a stick a month earlier.
But when police last week searched Ayala's Las Vegas home, they wondered if that idea was more than a joke. Finally, Asvestas reported a possible link to Wendy's on Tuesday.
"I never put two and two together" until she compared a photo of Allman's fingertip with one of the finger in the Wendy's case early Tuesday, she said.
Both photos show a fingertip about 11/2 inches long, with a roughly severed edge.
San Jose police are investigating a possible connection, the San Jose Mercury News reported Wednesday.
Allman was bitten at All Acting Animals in Pahrump, Nev., about 45 miles southeast of Las Vegas. The facility once furnished animals for films and television ads. But it declined, its animals living poorly and in squalor, Asvestas said.
Allman, who helped run the place, was saying "my babies would never hurt me" when she was bitten, Asvestas said.
Cindy Carroccio, director of the Austin Zoo, a nonprofit rescue zoo in southwestern Travis County, gave a similar account.
"It went like this. She (Allman) was saying 'They're just my babies. They would just ... Oh, my God!' and then she runs off.
"Everyone was running around. It was like a Keystone Cops movie," she said. "Someone looked down at the cage and said, 'I think it's her fingertip.' I took pictures and hosed it off."
Carroccio said she later saw the fingertip in a plastic bag with ice. A day later, Allman had a bandaged finger, but did not have the tip reattached.
Six tigers and two leopards were moved from Pahrump to the Wild Animal Orphanage. One leopard, Anthony's sister, is now at the Austin Zoo.
Asvestas said she hoped her report would help solve the case. Ayala has decided not to pursue legal action, but Wendy's has offered a $50,000 reward for information on the finger's origin.
Although she wasn't counting on a reward, Asvestas said she'd use any money to help care for the more than 600 animals at the orphanage.
The leopard that bit Allman's finger remains at the Pahrump site, in a 90-day quarantine.
"It's a shame that he's having to stay where he's already been suffering," Asvestas said.
So while most exotic animals have been removed, the cat that could be at the middle of the high-profile case has yet to see a happy ending.