Absurd Lawsuits: Scams, Frauds, and Greed
When Lawsuits Cross the Line from Frivolous to Criminal
Some lawsuits are legitimate. Some are questionable. And some are so absurd, so greedy, and so downright unbelievable that they make you wonder how anyone thought they'd get away with it. This episode is about the latter.
We're covering the most outrageous lawsuits in American history—cases that involve scams, frauds, and schemes so wild you'll think we made them up. Spoiler: we didn't.
Case 1: The Wendy's Finger Fraud
In March 2005, Anna Ayala walked into a Wendy's in San Jose, California, and ordered a bowl of chili. Moments later, she began screaming. She claimed she had bitten into something hard and rubbery—and when she looked down, she saw a human finger, complete with a manicured nail, sitting in her bowl.
The story made national headlines. Wendy's stock plummeted. Restaurants were shut down. Employees were harassed. America collectively lost its appetite for fast food.
But the finger wasn't an accident. It was planted.
Anna Ayala had a history of filing fraudulent lawsuits against businesses. She and her husband, Jaime Plascencia, had orchestrated an elaborate scheme to sue Wendy's for millions. The finger came from a coworker of Jaime's who had lost part of his finger in an industrial accident. Anna and Jaime thought they could outsmart corporate forensics and the entire American legal system.
They were wrong.
Forensic investigators determined the finger had been cooked separately from the chili and had been severed weeks earlier. Anna's story kept changing. She refused to cooperate with investigators. And Wendy's launched their own investigation, uncovering Anna's pattern of fraudulent lawsuits.
Anna Ayala was sentenced to nine years in prison. Jaime Plascencia was sentenced to more than 12 years. Wendy's lost an estimated $21 million in revenue due to the hoax.
Case 2: The Man Who Sued Himself
Yes, you read that right. A man actually filed a lawsuit against himself. The case is as bizarre as it sounds, and the legal gymnastics involved are truly mind-boggling. We break down how this happened, why he thought it was a good idea, and what the court had to say about it.
Case 3: The $67 Million Pants Lawsuit
In 2005, Roy Pearson, a Washington D.C. judge, took his pants to a dry cleaner called Custom Cleaners. When the cleaners lost his pants, Pearson sued them for $67 million. Yes, $67 million. Over a pair of pants.
Pearson argued that the dry cleaner's "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign was fraudulent because he was not, in fact, satisfied. He claimed emotional distress, inconvenience, and mental anguish. He demanded millions in damages.
The case dragged on for years. The dry cleaners, a small family-owned business run by Korean immigrants, spent over $100,000 in legal fees defending themselves. The lawsuit nearly destroyed their lives and their business.
In the end, Pearson lost. The judge ruled in favor of the dry cleaners and ordered Pearson to pay their legal fees. Pearson, a sitting judge at the time, was later removed from the bench and his reputation was destroyed.
The case became a symbol of everything wrong with frivolous lawsuits in America.
And More...
We also cover other absurd lawsuits that prove greed, entitlement, and bad judgment know no bounds. From scams to frauds to legal schemes, this episode is a wild ride through the American justice system's strangest moments.
TRANSCRIPT:
Lawsuits MELISSA
Mandy: [00:00:00] Some crimes are violent, some are tragic, and some are just so absurd that they make you lose a little faith in humanity. Today we're diving into the deep end of American absurdity. We're talking about lawsuits so wild, so petty, and so downright unbelievable.
You'll think we made them up
Marker
Mandy: Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast,
a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa.
Melissa: Hi Mandy. How are you?
Mandy: I am doing wonderful. How are you?
Melissa: I am doing so great. I cannot
wait for us to do this episode in particular because it's so fun and crazy and, makes me, it like, makes me feel
better about myself that I never would consider doing any of these
Mandy: Right.
Melissa: like right there I'm like, I might be a garbage
person, but I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't go that far.
So it's like the bar, I, I'm above the
bar. We're
Mandy: you are above the bar.
Yes, it does. These, these stories we're gonna talk about today, they do make you wonder, like where people get [00:01:00] the audacity and have the nerve to even try some of these things. Because I could never, like, I just would never,
and it's crazy that some people do some of these crazy things and file lawsuits that should never be filed.
So let's get started. We're gonna take it back to March of 2005. This is something. Many of our listeners will probably remember, but this is back in 2005. Flip phones are really a hot new thing. MySpace is, you know, the social media mothership. I always forget about MySpace. Now I feel like we're so far removed from MySpace.
I forget that it was even a thing.
Melissa: No, the thing you always remember about MySpace, and it gives me PTSD, is that your top eight? And I remember literally having people ask one particular why they weren't on my top eight. And I was like,
listen, or they weren't like the number one. I
was
like, listen, I gotta move things around and I like to make everybody number
one.
At one point it was too much stress. I can't do it.
Mandy: Yeah, and at this same time that we have all that going on, there's a [00:02:00] huge scandal also unfolding in the fast food industry, and it involved a bowl of chili. So if you were alive in 2005 and eating at Wendy's that year, then you definitely remember the headline, woman finds Human finger in her chili.
Melissa, you remember this?
Melissa: I absolutely do. That was, uh, a
wild time and, uh, I'm, I am so glad we get to learn the whole story.
Mandy: It is really a wild one. So even though it sounds kind of like an urban legend or like something that you would just hear from a cousin's, roommate's boyfriend who says, this happened somewhere. this was actually a real story and it really. Kind of became a big issue for Wendy's. They made national headlines and it was just not a great time for them.
Some of their restaurants were shut down, employees were getting harassed, and the stock in Wendy's really took a nosedive. and one woman ended up in prison all because of one rubbery little finger, and it wasn't just a gross headline. This was. A [00:03:00] full blown cultural moment really for us Americans.
As Americans. I feel like, uh, everyone lost their minds. America kind of did not want anything to do with the chili. They said they'll just take the fries and that's what we're talking about today. The Wendy's finger fraud. I do love alliteration and things. The
Wendy's finger fraud, This was a hoax that was so unhinged, and it proved that greed can really be way scarier than any mystery meat that's even in that Wendy's chili.
The wildest part though is that the finger wasn't an accident. It was planted by a woman who actually thought that she could outsmart corporate forensics and the entire American legal system. And that woman, our main character of the story was named Anna Aela Ann. The confidence she had in her own genius was maybe a little bit misplaced.
So it's a Tuesday night, March 22nd, 2005, and Ana walks into a Wendy's in San Jose, California with her husband named Jamie and a few of their relatives. The restaurant [00:04:00] is, you know, bustling. You have the smell of french fries cooking, friars going, and you know, just that slightly stale ketchup smell that everyone loves at fast food places.
So Anna steps up to the counter and orders a small chili. This is cheap, easy, not very remarkable, but that's until she sits down and starts stirring it and all of a sudden she takes a bite and instantly something is wrong. There's a rubbery item. In the chili
that hits her tongue.
And you know, there's a lot of questionable textures
sometimes, especially in fast food. But this wasn't one of them. This was definitely something, horrifying. She spits it out, looks down, and it's a human fingertip. It's pale, wrinkled in about an inch and a half long, complete with the nail still
attached. Oh my gosh,
Melissa: the length.
Inch and a half is not
big for some things, but It's a lot. for this It's a lot for a finger. And then the chili, oh
Mandy: It's a lot. So this woman, Anna, yells out [00:05:00] this, you know, this dramatic scream and everybody in the restaurant kind of freezes up and looks at her when people start realizing what's going on, that she has a finger and a napkin on the table, people are like gasping. There's people dialing 9 1 1 and people are even like dry heaving because this is so disgusting.
So Anna is also gagging and she's claiming that she's about to even faint due to this shock of this entire thing. And she starts demanding medical attention and just like that chaos takes the wheel and really, we'll come to find out, that's exactly what Anna wanted.
Melissa: Mandy, before I get
into the next
part, what are your
thoughts on Wendy's chili? 'cause I love a
good Wendy's chili.
Mandy: one of, yes. And especially this time of year, October the fall, I love to go to Wendy's and
what I'll order is a small chili and a baked potato. That's what I
love to eat from there. yeah, and I still eat Wendy's chili to this day.
Melissa: This story will
not.
deter me. Um, it's so good you put
sour cream in it [00:06:00] and it's just cools it down a little and they're crackers and
yeah, it's a perfect, yeah. I know This episode is sponsored by Wendy's. I wish. so by the time San Jose police and health inspectors showed up, the Wendy's looked less like a restaurant and a little more like a crime
scene from CSI. Where's the beef edition? Do you remember the, where's the Beef lady? I remember all
the videos. I, I wasn't, I don't think either of us were old enough for that.
So obviously Wendy's is shut down on the spot. This now infamous bowl of chili complete with its unwanted protein gets sealed up in an
evidence bag like it's the world's worst murder
weapon.
Mandy: believe they put it in a, I mean,
the whole bowl of chili got put in a bag or just the
Melissa: Oh, I maybe separate
what if it's separate? Two, two bags. Which
bag
would you wanna hold? The one with the finger or the one that has finger remnants and chili.
Mandy: But then don't they have, I mean, I wonder
'cause wouldn't you have to like check the whole [00:07:00] entire pot, like
supply of chili? What if there's more fingers? I don't know.
Melissa: I didn't even think about that. Like there's one, did you stop
Mandy: Right? Like we gotta check the rest of the chili before we give it to anybody else.
Melissa: So of course the employees are lined up and they're questioned, and managers are panicking. And somewhere in Ohio, Wendy's corporate office was collectively losing their minds. I don't think Dave was still alive then, but if he was, if not, he was rolling over in his grave, I'm sure. So within an hour, their crisis hotline was hotter than the friars.
And within 24 hours. It was everywhere. Every news broadcast, every talk show, every internet forum. I probably wrote a blog about it on MySpace because that's what you did back then. And, and of course there are the people at home that are sitting there, you know, sipping coffee or like the little frog
in the meme, uh, saying, see, that's why I don't eat fast [00:08:00] food.
Um, so judgmental. I know it always happens, but I like to say that. How
many bags of salad have been recalled for e coli? a a million. So you're not gonna get one over on me. so the level of national disgust is really off the charts, and Wendy's sales don't just drop, they plummet. The company estimated a $2.5 million loss in the first wave alone,
but some reports say it could have been $30 million.
Mandy: Wow.
Melissa: Yeah, so that's more than a PR problem. That's a full on corporate extinction level event. There was almost no Wendy's, you do think back to this
and think it could have gone two ways. It, it really could have tanked them forever. and I don't know. And so the way they ended up dealing with it. I'm still pretty impressed.
So West Coast restaurants are really ghost towns. These, these Wendy's nobody's really wanting to go to. There's
[00:09:00] franchise owners are closing early because no one wants the chili with a finger in it. Um, there's customers that are harassing employees and they want to see the chili before they get
it, which, if you're gonna have to
ask to see it I don't think you should have the chili. like,
if
Mandy: Yeah.
Melissa: it,
Mandy: But also,
isn't it kind of like, it is kind of funny to me that like, you know, you find one finger and
one Chili's at one Wendy's and now everyone's freaking out. Like, this is gonna become a common thing. Like, come on, people, you guys had to know that you, there wasn't, it's not like you're gonna start finding body parts in chili all over the country.
Like I feel like it's a little like, I mean,
Melissa: I mean,
10 fingers. It could just be one person. You never know. No, I totally
agree. It's Like
and you think it happened, then there's no way it
can happen.
Now, you know, they've got Like
Mandy: Like
Melissa: Cameras in the chili.
Mandy: right. Something like that only happens once.
Melissa: Exactly. But here's the thing. Wendy's corporate was not about to let this slide. They knew that if this story [00:10:00] stuck, if this was a real story, and if people actually believed that someone's finger ended up in the chili. They're destroyed. So they go to war. Their PR teams work around the clock, the legal departments in overdrive, and the company made it very clear they were going to prove that that finger didn't come from their kitchen. Meanwhile, inside the San Jose location, the employees are terrified. You can't really blame them because. Everyone's,
it's gotta be the Superman meme again, everyone's pointing at each other, and
you've gotta just be like a level of, oh no, they can't point the finger. Oh wait, no, they can. They're not the ones that did this. So the detectives really start their investigation immediately and the first step. As you can imagine,
even though it sounds crazy, it was literally like what you would do with your kids. Say like, put your hands
up and everybody, let's count your fingers. Yeah. And so they do like a full 10 finger roll call and [00:11:00] they count every single finger in that kitchen like they're taking inventory,
which they were. And shocker, everyone there had 10 fingers. There's no missing tips. There's no tragic chopping accidents. No, maybe I might have lost one of the chili last week kind of story. So investigators then have to expand their search. They go through every supplier that Wendy's worked with. Every meat processor, every farm, asking the world's weirdest question, Hey, maybe.
Did someone maybe lose a finger here the other day? You, you can tell us. We won't be mad,
Mandy: It is so absurd, like it's actually so absurd.
Melissa: wouldn't you? I would be the most paranoid person.
I, it doesn't even matter where I'd land on this. I would start thinking I had a phantom sixth finger that had come off because I just could not figure out why this was happening. So, uh, not a single person though says, Hey, I lost a finger. There's no lost appendages. There's no accident reports, no workers' comp claims. There's nothing. And so [00:12:00] that's when the picture really starts to shift. That's when forensics gets involved and experts examine the finger itself and immediately they spotted that something was off. This finger was,
I'm so sorry, but it was pale, wrinkly, impartially cooked. but not the way something would be cooked if it
was like simmering all day in a giant pot of chili. I'm glad we know the difference in how. Human body parts. That's probably what the body farm does. Let's put 'em in chili now. So it really looked like it was heated separately and then added later Also, the cut was really too clean. It's like surgical level clean. There's no jagged edges, there's no crushing or tearing. Just this really neat little slice through bone and tissue. And so that was the turning point because if this wasn't an accident and nobody at Wendy's was missing a finger. Then someone had planted it and whoever did that wasn't just a disgusting [00:13:00] person.
They were bold enough to think they could outsmart both science and the entire fast food industry. Spoiler alert. They could not. And we still have so much more to get into after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors.
Marker
Melissa: Mandy, did you see the forecast for Friday? There is a high of 70 degrees, and
I gotta say, I feel like that's just the universe giving us official permission to wear sweaters
again.
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quality essentials. I've been living in their
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I'm eyeing one of their wool coats. They look totally designer, but cost a fraction of the price. You'd never [00:14:00] guess they're able to do that because they work directly with ethical factories and skip the middlemen.
Melissa: Exactly. It's smart, stylish,
and doesn't blow your budget. I love when something feels like a treat, but also makes sense.
Mandy: find your Fall Staples at Quince. Go to quince.com/moms for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C e.com/moms to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com/moms.
Marker
Melissa: And now back to the episode.
Mandy: So before the break, we were talking about the
full story of the infamous finger in the Wendy's chili that happened in 2005. And at the point in the story where we left off, the authorities were really starting to realize that something was off about the whole situation. They couldn't figure out how the finger got there, but they knew for sure that nobody who worked at Wendy's was missing a finger.
And they came to the conclusion that someone must have. Planted this finger there, which honestly, [00:15:00] even as somebody who's like looking into this and investigating it, like even jumping to that step, like, well, someone had to have planted it Like that sounds insane.
Melissa: It sounds very flat earth.
Mandy: It
does. It does. Like, because What do
you mean? But at this
point, Wendy's is really bleeding money. We're talking millions of dollars vanishing daily, and their reputation is circling the drain faster than yesterday's chili, to be honest. So the corporation decided to do something bold. This is kind of like a Hail Mary. You know, this better work. Or like you said before, the whole company's going under, they offered a $100,000 reward for any information that could solve the finger in the chili case.
They actually made a public announcement that said, you know, we're so confident this did not happen in our restaurant. We will literally pay six figures to prove it. So this is a massive gamble on their part, especially because they are already losing so much money, and if they're wrong, you know, maybe if there was some poor employee somewhere who had lost a finger and just didn't say anything, you know, this could kind of blow [00:16:00] up in their face and become a lot more embarrassing than it already was.
But Wendy's bet big on their own cleanliness and their food safety systems. And most importantly, they're putting all their eggs in the basket that this woman, Anna Ayala, is up to no good. And she's trying to get, get one over on them, and it really paid off for them. Once the investigators started digging into Anna's background, they realized they weren't dealing with a shocked victim.
They were actually dealing with a professional. She was not new to the legal rodeo. She actually had been around the block. How many times Melissa? Once, twice, three times. What do
you think?
Melissa: 13 times.
Mandy: 13 times. She has filed 13 lawsuits
before this one. She has hit car dealerships, grocery stores, restaurants, and even the owner of a neighbor's dog. So if there was a way to cash in on any type of complaint, Anna had already tried it. She really had become kind of a local legend in Vegas for her ability [00:17:00] to kind of find these injuries and injustices wherever she went, and somehow managed to frequently walk away with a nice little settlement check.
So friends of hers said that she was someone who loved drama, which clearly, if you're willing to put a finger in. Wendy's chili. Like you, you definitely are someone who loves drama and attention. Her family also said that, that about her, that she was, very attention hungry, I guess. And every court docket that she ever appeared on said that she loved money.
So yeah. When detectives saw her name on this case, the alarm bells went off immediately. They dug deeper and discovered that Anna and her husband Jamie were really in this financial free fall. At the time, they had like foreclosure level chaos in their lives. Jamie had just lost his construction job and since this story just needs another layer of disaster, Jamie was also under investigation for another fraud case and the couple's debts were piling up.
The stress was suffocating them [00:18:00] and. Anna, I guess, found, you know, this idea or came up with this idea. and when she found a human finger in her chili, quote unquote, the investigators couldn't help but notice that it didn't really seem like a shocking discovery. After all, it seems a lot more like a last ditch money grab.
This was not a woman who had been traumatized by a severed finger. It was someone trying to turn a fast food chain into her personal ATM. And the plan, as it turned out, was extremely simple. They were going to stage this horrifying incident, Sue Wendy's for millions of dollars, and then cash out, you know, before the truth catches up to 'em.
So Anna saw Wendy's initial panic and probably thought to herself, perfect. they're gonna want this to go away. They'll give me a quick settlement, it'll be an easy payday,
Melissa: I mean,
Mandy: here. That is, yeah, I mean, it is. For sure. What she didn't count on was that they were gonna bring in professionals and forensic science, corporate fury, you know, all these things are playing into the fact that she's not gonna get away with this.
And also [00:19:00] people are starting to be like, Hey there, there's not a whole lot of places that you can even get your hands on a human finger. So what's going on here?
Melissa: Get your hands on a human finger. So investigators send the finger off for DNA testing and what they get back really just turns this whole thing
upside down. The DNA doesn't match Anna. 'cause Yeah, I gotta assume they made her do the 10 fingers challenge And it also doesn't match her husband, Jamie. It doesn't match a single Wendy's employee, supplier, or anyone within a chili splash radius of that San Jose restaurant. Instead, the DNA actually leads them to a man in Nevada. This guy tells police he'd actually worked with Jamie at a construction site weeks earlier and that yes, he had in fact lost his finger in a work accident totally legitimately, just a freak thing that happened to him. but then he drops a bomb. So weird that even the detectives needed a moment to really soak it all in. He said he had given his severed [00:20:00] finger
to
Jamie as repayment for a debt.
Mandy: What on Earth?
Melissa: Saying it's for a debt is a crazy thing to say and to
Mandy: Like imagine just going up to someone I know and
just being like, Hey, can I buy your finger and or just give it to
me and we'll
Melissa: Yeah. Hey, you owe me $200.
Just if you give me that finger that
just came off, we'll call it even like, what are you gonna do with it? You freak.
Mandy: I know for that reason alone, I would be like, no,
Melissa: No, I don't know
Mandy: Get your
Melissa: exactly. At that point, even the cops are looking around, you know, thinking like, oh my gosh, are we being punked? Where's Dax Shepherd? Where's Ashton Kutcher? But really, no, this is the real deal. The story actually checks out. So now this entire picture with Anna and Jamie and. The fingerless man comes into focus and and they learn that Ana and Jamie have been keeping this finger in their freezer like it was a bag of peas or leftover [00:21:00] lasagna, just waiting until the perfect moment to use it.
Mandy: Gross
Melissa: At least it was fresh. When they planned their trip to California, they brought it with him. I can't, they defrosted it and then they just dropped it right into a bowl of chili.
Imagine you have to put that in your mouth if you want this to
land. Like, and you imagine that bite coming up to your mouth. I guess you just have to be thinking about money. 'cause there's no
other way That thing could be coming to your mouth and you, I'm gonna lose it.
Okay. And anyway, once investigators are able to piece it all together, the whole thing falls apart, right? So instead of walking away with millions, Anna and Jamie walked straight into a legal disaster. They ended up being arrested and charged with attempted grand larceny and conspiracy, and put the emphasis on attempted because. Their plan didn't even work. Wendy's never paid them a dime. The courtroom drama that followed was everything you'd expect. It was high [00:22:00] emotion, corporate, lawyers, breathing, fire, and a very unimpressed judge who called their actions quote, A fraud fueled by greed and a total disregard for innocent people's livelihoods. And he wasn't exaggerating. Wendy's franchise owners testified about losing half their business overnight. There's employees that are laid off, managers are being harassed, and the ripple effect of this one woman's fake finger fiasco alliteration, again, was enormous. When it's all said and done, Anna pleads guilty and gets nine years in prison.
She served four years before being paroled in 2009. Jamie got 12 years and four months, and considering he was already involved in another fraud case, it kind of feels very unbrand. The court also ordered them to pay $21 million in restitution to Wendy's, which. I mean, sometimes I'm like, why did we even put that in writing?
Like, you just wasted your time with that. They're never gonna be able to pay you back. So to recap, they destroyed [00:23:00] lives. They wrecked a national brand's reputation and they ended up with prison time restitution and the eternal title of those people who put a finger in chili
all over a scam that made about as much sense as paying your electric bill with monopoly money.
Mandy: Seriously, because I, I also would like to know, so like when they.
Asked if they could have this man's finger. I wonder, did they have an actual plan at that point or were they like, let's just, I don't know what we're gonna do with this yet, but like gonna get an idea one
day
Melissa: on ice. Put it on ice.
Mandy: Or did they have an idea in mind?
'cause that is so random and there's so many different ways. I feel like, like if you were thinking about like ways that you're gonna try and like sue a restaurant or whatever, like I feel like there's a lot of different things you could potentially fake, but like. How did it cross your mind to put a finger in the chili?
Like there's, there are legitimate things that happen at restaurants that I feel like would be easier to fake than and get away with than this.
Melissa: Totally What came first? The finger or the chili? We [00:24:00] don't know. I
mean, did this guy that, like you're saying, did he
lose his finger and then they
had the idea, or did or they, or did he cut his finger off? I'm not
saying that that's not, nobody has said that. Nobody alleges that. But it is crazy to be like, well, while we're here, just give it to me because you know, the hospital did not give it back to him.
That's like
all kinds of issues. So it had to be from the work
site that he handed it
Mandy: He's like
just give it
to me. Like, and
Melissa: moment?
Mandy: after you got your finger cut off
some, some guy is like, can I have that
Melissa: He pops up like the guy in the alleyway in, uh, Charlie, in the chocolate
Mandy: right?
Melissa: kind of like pops up and has a question for you. That's what it
feels
Mandy: Yeah, so let's talk about the aftermath though. The Wendy's finger fraud wasn't just some flash in the pan tabloid story. It really rocked the entire fast food world, and the case did more than just gross people out. It actually made them rethink whether they could ever trust. A drive-through. Again, Wendy's corporate basically had to go into pr, rehab.
They rolled out new crisis [00:25:00] response plans. They had food safety protocols, forensic testing procedures, the whole nine yards. managers had, were getting trained in how to handle emergencies like. This, I guess if you ever need to know how to handle a body part in your entree, again, like then they had training for this.
Um, they were giving away free frosties. They were giving out coupons, they tried everything short of an exorcism to get customers back in the door. They even had to find ways to scrub the words finger and chili from being used in the same sentence ever again. Once the internet, you know, takes a hold of something like that, that's their legacy.
Good luck recovering from that. So they had a lot of, they had their work cut out for them.
And thankfully for those of us who do love Wendy's and Wendy's chili, it worked. Eventually, the company did stabilize, the sales returned and life kind of moved on. But of course, that public disgust kind of sticks around and Wendy's finger chili became shorthand for hoax Scam.
You know, now that's kind of what everyone thinks of when we think of Wendy's [00:26:00] Chili. But let's be real. The whole saga tapped into something much deeper than chili trauma. It really hit that primal, universal fear that just maybe the thing you're eating isn't what you think it is.
Melissa: Oh, why would you bring it up again
Mandy: I know America had not really had that same level of food related anxiety about, you know, eating out in public and being in the public sector like that.
since the Tylenol poisonings of 1982, which I was not around for. Um, and, but every time a story, I know you aren't either, but every time a story like this breaks, it really just kind of shakes up that
fragile trust that we all have, you know, that. We're putting our faith in the people who are feeding us.
We wanna believe that the food that we're eating at restaurants and fast food places is safe, and that the kitchens are clean and that there's not a severed finger lurk in the depths of your dinner. And of course, when that illusion breaks, everybody kind of panics, which you can definitely understand.
But then there's still Anna that we have to talk about after serving her prison [00:27:00] sentence. She was released and she did what any remorseful person would do. Just kidding. She actually just went on TV and said that she still eats at Wendy's, which, why wouldn't you? You knew that the whole thing was a hoax all along.
Melissa: But why don't you use her for the commercials? The
lady claimed that she had, She's taken
Wendy's to court. She's lost and she still eats there.
Mandy: Yeah.
Melissa: a commercial.
Mandy: There you go. Yeah. She, she nearly destroyed this entire company. but when reporters asked her if she even felt guilty, she said she'd been set up. She didn't even know where the finger came from. That's what she said,
and she tried to rebrand herself as this misunderstood victim of a corporate smear campaign.
So, yeah, investigators of course are not buying that. The evidence was really rock solid. The DNA was undeniable and her freezer was very telling. But even with all that, Ana cemented her place in true crime history, not as a victim, but as the poster child for greed, delusion, and one of the most bizarre scams ever pulled in the name of fast food.
And as for that $100,000 [00:28:00] reward that Wendy's put up, it ended up being split between two sters. One of them was a guy named Mike Casey, who worked at the asphalt plant with both Jamie and the original finger donor, if you will. Um, yeah, and it feels kind of like a poetic ending, I guess.
you know, the guy who probably saw the least drama got the cash and the people that caused all the chaos went to prison.
Melissa: I was glad to hear the finger
guy got money,
Mandy: Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa: although he had a debt. And what was that debt? We don't know enough, but. Optimistically. I'm glad that he got it. so now we're heading to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It's August, 2002. There's two 17-year-old boys, Jeffrey Klein and Brett Birdwell, and they're hanging out at Jeffrey's mom's house and
doing what teenage boys do best.
They're making bad decisions with their whole chest. so they decide to climb up on top of a stationary railroad box car, because apparently the view from the ground just wasn't giving what it needed to give. [00:29:00] But what they didn't realize was that directly above them. was a 12,500 volt wire, the kind of wire that powers trains edit. So if you're wondering how close you have to get to 12,500 volts before it kills you, it turns out not very close. Jeffrey didn't even touch the wire. The electricity actually just went through the air and hit him like a lightning bolt. He was engulfed in flames. Instantly, and Brett is there with his friend and he tries to help him and he ends up getting caught in this electrical field as well. The injuries were really catastrophic. Jeffrey suffered burns over 75% of his body. He lost most of the use of his left hand. and he spent years in recovery. Brett was burned over 18%,
and though his injuries were less severe, his trauma was just as deep
Mandy: These boys are so incredibly lucky to be alive and like, oh my gosh, I having teenage boys. I'm [00:30:00] like, yeah, I can see how
kids get in these stupid situations. But you're like, what on earth were you thinking? And like, you are so lucky that you are here.
Melissa: Absolutely. Yeah. Edit. And just to be clear, these boys were trespassing. There were no trespassing signs everywhere. So they weren't confused about what they were doing. They knew they were trespassing, but one impulsive decision turns into a life altering tragedy and it didn't end there because somehow this horrible accident
turned into one of the most controversial lawsuits
in American history.
Mandy: So fast forward a few years, Jeffrey and Brett, who at this point are both now adults, take Amtrak and Norfolk Southern to court. And their argument was that the railroad company should have done more to warn about the dangers of those high voltage wires, which. What I've been, I mean, I, I can't say what signage was actually at this particular place, but I have certainly seen a lot of signs [00:31:00] that like alert you to the fact that you should not be in this area if it's high voltage
area.
Um, I don't know if there was or wasn't, but I feel like that's, I feel like it's hard to say that you didn't know that you were in a dangerous area. So before everybody just rolls their eyes and says, oh, they're not gonna get anywhere with this.
Um, hold onto your horses, because the case actually made it to federal court in Philadelphia in October of 2006, the jury dropped a verdict that shocked pretty much everyone when they awarded the two men a combined $24.2 million. Jeffrey got, yeah, Jeffrey got over $11 million In compensation, and Brett got around 588,000.
And then as if that wasn't enough, the jury threw on another 12 and a half million in punitive damages. The railroad companies argued the obvious, which was that the boys were trespassing, that they knew better, and this accident was completely on them, but the plaintiff's attorney had a different take and it really hit a nerve.
He argued that [00:32:00] even if the boys were trespassing, property owners still have a duty to prevent foreseeable harm in plain English. Just because someone breaks the rules doesn't mean you can let them get electrocuted, which, yes,
yeah,
Melissa: it. Yeah.
Mandy: true. Um, but so the jury was asked a question
that basically split the whole nation down the middle, which was, should a company be responsible for protecting people, even the ones who are breaking the rules, if the danger is so extreme that.
You can predict that someone would die from doing this, and the jury said Yes, it's absolutely their responsibility to prevent death at all costs. So the court decided that even though the boys were in the wrong, the railroad companies should have anticipated that curious teenagers might climb on top of box cars They should have made the dangers a lot more obvious and of course harder to access. And that ruling didn't just hand over $24 million. It completely redefined how corporations think about liability. This case opened Pandora's Box, so to speak. Suddenly people everywhere were arguing about it. You had [00:33:00] professors, lawyers, parents talk show hosts.
Everybody was talking about this case. And you know, on one hand you've got the personal responsibility camp. These were two nearly grown men almost. They were old enough to drive. They were old them to have jobs. They were certainly old enough to read signs that said Danger, high voltage. And why should a company have to pay for their mistake?
But on the other hand, you've got the corporate accountability camp, Amtrak and Norfolk Southern own infrastructure. That's literally deadly. They knew people, especially teenagers, might be tempted to climb those trains, and they didn't do enough to keep that from happening. So it boiled down to one miserable existential question, where does personal responsibility and and corporate liability begin?
I'm not sure we have really even found that line to this day,
but the answer, at least in this case, was somewhere in the middle, leaning pretty heavily toward corporate liability. The verdict basically told every company in America. Even if someone breaks the law to get hurt on your [00:34:00] property, if it's foreseeable, it's your problem.
It was a total philosophical nightmare because sure, it feels unjust to make a company pay millions for someone else's mistake, and sometimes not even, I wouldn't even call it a mistake, they intentionally went where they weren't supposed to be. But it also feels wrong to let a kid be burned alive and then just, you know, say, well, they shouldn't have been there.
Which you do understand both sides and how this case did become such a controversial talking point.
Melissa: Oh, absolutely. Because I, I mean, fully, at first when I was reading this, I was like, kids are idiots. not that that should have happened to them, but like, I don't, I don't think they have a case,
but then hearing and thinking like, oh my gosh, kids are still kids and they're
Mandy: Right. And my own kids are idiots. Right. And I wouldn't want something like this. Right. And so I wouldn't want nobody wants their, you know. Yeah. You can
say they're almost fully grown. Okay. My son is 16, right? Your daughter is approaching 17. It's like.
Melissa: Yeah.
Mandy: Yeah, they're, they might be almost 18, but like, that's still, [00:35:00] these are our babies, right?
Like, and we still know they make mistakes. They do stupid things. They make stupid decisions, and they don't deserve to die because of it. So there is that part of it,
Melissa: Yeah, and you can't think of every single
thing to tell your kid not to do. You can't be like, okay, today, here are the things you cannot do. If there is a sign for this, like you're gonna miss stuff. Obviously the goal is for your kid to respect these kind of things and know that something can lead to it. If it really isn't a place that people can have access to, you have to
assume, I guess that's what the whole thing is, right? You have to assume
that someone could do this and so then they would die. It. That's a tough one for me, really. I, I am, I'm
surprised and not surprised that the jury, you know,
awarded them all that, but wow.
Mandy: Yeah, definitely a wild, wild case. And we have another crazy lawsuit to get into after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors.
Marker
Melissa: Now back to the episode.
Marker
Melissa: Okay, so after two stories that really make you question [00:36:00] humanity's relationship with common sense, let's end with some that just make you question humanity. Meet Robert Lee Brock, a man serving time at the Indian Creek Correctional Center in Virginia. Back in 1995, Robert bless his little heart, decided that since the world wasn't holding him accountable enough, he do it himself. He filed a seven-page handwritten lawsuit against himself. He literally sued himself and his argument was that by drinking alcohol back in 1993, he had quote, violated his own civil rights and doing this caused himself to commit crimes that eventually landed him in prison. So he asked for the obvious, which would be $5 million in damages from himself, from his jail cell. Unfortunately, he's not like rolling in cash at the moment, so he can't pay it. So he [00:37:00] says, why doesn't the state of Virginia just pay it on my behalf to myself?
Honestly, this is very much one of those things where I'm like, I don't want this to work, but I
kind
of do.
I kind of do. But somehow this case actually goes all the way to federal court. Judge Rebecca Beach Smith had to sit down and read all of this nonsense and write what might be the most polite judicial eye roll in history. She did commend him on his innovative approach to civil rights litigation, which is basically legal.
Speak for sir, we do not have time for this. She then points out very reasonably that even if she ruled in his favor, it would be impossible to enforce a judgment requiring Robert Lee Brock to pay. Robert Lee Brock. But don't worry, Robert wasn't done. Oh no. Once he got a taste for this legal spotlight, he went to full performance artist. He later filed another lawsuit claiming prison officials were [00:38:00] tampering with his dreams, and another one that said he was being forced to watch Baywatch and that violated his religious rights.
Here's the thing. That one almost makes sense. If they
Mandy: Yeah.
Melissa: one thing and
it's against your,
like what? I'm like, okay, Robert, why do I keep coming on your
side? This is not a good thing. I'm worried And here's the craziest twist of all. His antics actually helped inspire part of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996, which was designed to stop inmates from filing ridiculous lawsuits like his. So in a weird way, Robert Lee Brock changed federal law
all because he sued himself for being his own worst enemy.
Mandy: So next up on
our tour of Legal lunacy is a guy named Richard Overton. No, we're not talking about the World War II veteran, but instead a very disappointed man from San Francisco. In 1991, Richard decided to sue Anheuser Busch. That's the makers of. Budweiser beer, and his reason [00:39:00] was because the commercials lied to him.
So those classic Budweiser ads that we all grew up seeing, you know, the ones with the beaches, the really great, gorgeous looking people, and the magical parties. Well, those commercials made Richard believe that drinking Budweiser would lead to a paradise like experience with beautiful women everywhere.
And when that didn't happen, shocking. I know he said he suffered emotional distress, mental injury and financial loss, and so he sued the company for $10,000. The kicker though, was Richard Overton actually didn't even drink alcohol. He was a tea. And so there was really no, like he was never gonna get this.
Paradise like experience because he wasn't even drinking the beer, yeah. So he wasn't even mad about his personal lack of
beer induced romance. He claimed that he was standing up for other people's disappointment. But his complaint was actually very detailed, like paragraph after paragraph, describing the fantasy [00:40:00] sequences of Budweiser commercials and how fake they were.
And his lawyer even argued that it was subliminal advertising. He said that, uh, Anheuser-Busch wasn't selling beer. They were selling an illusion. Isn't that what all alcohol companies are selling?
Melissa: Yeah,
Mandy: I feel like that's their whole, that's their entire shtick really. but the court, however, didn't agree. The judge ruled that the ads were puffery, which is basically the legal term for harmless marketing.
Exaggeration, kind of like world's best coffee or r fries are addictive. Those kind of things. It's not really true. It's just something that you kind of put out there to sell your product.
Melissa: But it is funny because we get ad copy and stuff and there's very much do's and don'ts. Like you
can't say something is addictive or, or there's certain words you cannot use. So it is interesting that like there is like
this legal loophole of other things
you can kind of say, and Richard was really trying to get in on
Mandy: Yes, he was. But the case got dismissed and Richard didn't get his 10 grand or his imaginary beach party. [00:41:00] But he really might have been ahead of his time because years later, people actually did win lawsuits over false advertising, such as when Red Bull had to pay out $13 million because it didn't actually give people wings or when Subway got sued for their foot long sandwiches.
I remember when this one happened, it came out that they only measured 11 inches and people lost their minds because it was not 12 inches. So in a way, Richard kind of walked, so the Red Bull plaintiffs could fly. Figuratively, of course. 'cause you know,
Melissa: We don't wanna get sued,
Mandy: right,
Melissa: until Tampax and all of those
companies.
Give us money for not having your period and riding on horses on the beach
and stuff like that. I don't wanna
hear about
his Budweiser fantasies.
Mandy: right.
Melissa: been lied
to For
Mandy: Forever.
Melissa: even. Yeah. Nobody's riding a horse on their period.
My gosh.
Mandy: the
ones where they're like dancing around, you know? And I'm
like, who's doing that?
Melissa: happy. I'm
like, you don't even wanna look
in the mirror on your period. you
hate who you see [00:42:00] looking back at
Mandy: I'm not wearing a dress and like twirling around in some
Melissa: No.
Show one of me with a, a heating
pad on my stomach and maybe, maybe I won't sue you. Okay, so this one is probably my personal favorite because it's got everything ego irony, and one very expensive pair of pants. So in 2005, a Washington DC administrative law judge named Roy Pearson sued his local dry cleaners. It was a small family owned business run by the Chung family, and
he sued them because
they lost his very favorite
pair of gray pants.
Mandy: I get it. I get, I gotta say, I get it.
Melissa: Honestly, I know when you find that magic pair of pants that just works, the idea of losing them could make you emotional.
I have to wear talls, so I have to order mine specially
online. It's just a whole thing, and if I find them, you're going down. So a normal person, not me or Mandy, [00:43:00] would ask for a refund, but Roy Pearson. was not a normal person. He filed a lawsuit asking for $67
million, which I don't think is enough for losing your favorite pair of pants
Mandy: Well, I think it was funny that
he had said that
their sign said satisfaction guaranteed. But he, he was saying like that was false advertising 'cause he
was not satisfied. Which like I feel like is actually um. Okay, you got me there. Like I wouldn't be satisfied either. And it does say satisfied, guaranteed
satisfaction,
guaranteed.
Melissa: Yeah.
Um, honestly, good
point. I think we are about to have about 50 lawsuits to file
after this episode, Mandy.
Mandy: I can think of a few right now.
Melissa: So later though, in a moment of mercy, he reduces the amount he's asking for to $54 million, which is. Much better. So he also itemized it. He asked for $500,000 for emotional damages, $2 million for mental distress, which I don't understand what's different with those two [00:44:00] $15,000 for car rental fees to drive to another cleaner and the remaining $51.5 million to help other DC consumers hold businesses accountable. He took it all the way to trial though. He drug the
Chung family through years of hell. He
even made their teenage son cry on the stand, which now I'm out of. I'm out now.
Roy, you've gone too far. But after two long years, the judge finally threw it out, calling it one of the most frivolous cases in DC history. So Roy not only lost the case, but he also lost his
job as a judge, which still blows my mind that that was his occupation doing all of this just when you think we've hit peak absurdity, Mandy, we have a psychic who sued a hospital because she claimed a CAT scan destroyed her supernatural powers. She said the radiation severed her connection to the spirit world, and she wanted compensation for
lost spiritual
income. Is [00:45:00] that real dollars and cents, or is that
like, what is spiritual income?
Mandy: of sense. I.
Melissa: Yeah, the case though didn't go anywhere. And then next we've got a man who sued Michael Jordan and Nike founder Phil Knight for $416 million, claiming his life was ruined because people kept mistaking him.
For Michael Jordan, for the record, these two looked nothing alike, Just the fact that you would do that and not just receive a compliment.
you look like Michael Jordan. Oh, the most successful basketball player of all time. Oh, that's really an insult. Come on. Just enjoy it. There's another favorite Christopher Roller, who was a self-proclaimed magician from Minnesota, who sued David Copperfield and David Blaine for stealing his godly powers. He claimed they
owed him 10% of their net worth for using his divine energy without permission.
Mandy: Oh man.
Melissa: The audacity for this. He should have. He should have gotten at least [00:46:00] 20%.
It is wild to me the things
that
people take the time
to
go through this,
Mandy: Yeah. Years of your life
and money, like filing a lawsuit is
not free. Like, it, it costs a lot of money to take a lawsuit to this level. Like it is wild.
And then like what happens if you lose, now you're just out money and you look stupid. I don't know. I just, uh, it's, it's crazy that people come up with these Being, uh, in a financial position where you feel like you need money and you're desperate, like, I get that that's a not a good position for you to be in or feel like you're in. I don't, I, you just, you can't get me with putting fingers in fast food and stuff like that.
That's a
Melissa: no.
Mandy: too, it's a little too desperate.
Melissa: The one that I did find myself
relating to the most is the guy who wanted to sue
himself
because
I wake up every day. I wanna sue myself for emotional distress. I have
to
wake up and
be me every day. Yeah.
You're telling me I shouldn't be monetarily compensated. Come
on. This is, this is a lot of [00:47:00] life to
live. Um.
Mandy: want the state to pay for it as
Melissa: I do State of Florida, pay us. yeah, so anyway,
those were great. That's just crazy stories. Let us know what your favorite one is and while you're listening, if you wanna go
ahead and just hit subscribe. If you haven't already done that, please leave us a review on Spotify.
Apple, Mandy reads all of them and tells me all the nice ones.
And, uh, we love that and we really appreciate it.
Mandy: Alright. Thank you guys so much for listening. We will be back next week. Same time, same place. New story.
Bye.
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Mandy: Same here. The pack of hoodie is so soft, like softer than cashmere even, but it's also warmer than wool and somehow still very lightweight. It's wild how it keeps me warm in the morning and keeps me cool by the afternoon.
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Marker
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The new tropical flavor is my favorite. It's like papaya and passion fruit. Had a very refreshing baby, and since I started taking it, I've noticed I've. Feel more balanced during the day. I feel less sluggish, more steady energy, and my mornings just feel more put together. It's like my little insurance policy for when my diet isn't quite perfect, which let's be honest, that is most days if you've been thinking about simplifying your wellness routine, a G one is the move.
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Marker
Melissa: Mandy, my husband, used to have this one pair of white Jorts. Yes, white jean shorts, emphasis on, he used to have them because I freaking threw those things away.
He said they were so comfortable, but they were [00:50:00] so freaking ugly and one day they just ended up in the trash. But lucky for him, now he's discovered true classic jeans. And I swear I'll never have to secretly throw these out because they look great. And he says they feel like pajamas, and they're made to last. The guys at True Classic started with a simple mission to bring premium, comfortable clothing to everyone because looking good shouldn't come with a designer price tag. Clearly people agree. There's over 25 million shirts sold, 5 million customers and 200,005 star reviews. Their clothes just fit. They're tailored where they should be relaxed, where you want 'em to be.
there's no stiff fabric, no weird fit, just clean, effortless style that works for real life. so if your guys still holding onto those nostalgic shorts, or even worse, those torn skinny jeans from his EMO
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