Why can't I set a variable based on result of expression?

Why can't I set a variable based on result of expression?

This is baffling me. I have the following line of code, with a debugger call:
usr_has_widget = usr_wid_list.wlist.gsub('\;',
',').split(",").include?(widget.widget_name)
debugger
My app stops in debug mode and I get the following:
(rdb:11) usr_has_widget
false
(rdb:11) usr_wid_list.wlist.gsub('\;',
',').split(",").include?(widget.widget_name)
true
So the right hand expression is resolving to 'true' but the variable
usr_has_widget is being set to 'false'.
It must be simple, but I've stared at it all day. Why does usr_has_widget
not get set to 'true'?