Man in Oregon trapped in his car for five days ate hot sauce, and moments after a Taco Bell customer got up from his seat to retrieve some hot sauce, a car burst through the restaurant’s wall

Don’t throw out those sauce packets collecting in your fridge. They just might save your life.

At least two people owe their lives to Taco Bell hot sauce after near-death experiences in recent weeks.

In Oregon late last month, a man and his dog were trapped in his car for five days as snow piled up. When a snowmobiler rescued Jeremy Taylor, 36, and his dog Ally, both were in decent health, said sheriff’s deputies. The two had kept warm by snuggling together in a sleeping bag – and Taylor had nourished himself on hot sauce packets. (Ally, who drank melted ice, does not seem to have partaken in the hot sauce; this is perhaps due to the notorious difficulty of getting one’s snout inside the packages.)

Following the rescue, Taco Bell selflessly weighed in: “We know our sauce packets are amazing, but this takes it to a whole new level. We’re in touch with Jeremy and getting him some well-deserved tacos and a care package.”

Then, last weekend in Florida, hot sauce worked its life-saving magic in an entirely different way.

Moments after a Taco Bell customer got up from his seat to retrieve some hot sauce, a car burst through the restaurant’s wall – right where the customer had been sitting, according to the Miami Herald. Had the customer not sought a fuller flavor for his meal, he “could have sustained a devastating injury, or even death”, a police spokeswoman, Jamie Brown, told the Herald.

The car had been parked outside the building and its driver had apparently meant to put it in reverse. Instead, he went forward, and the car plowed 10ft into the building, police said. Fortunately, no one in the car or the restaurant was hurt.

The customer “should play the lottery”, Brown said.

Winter Haven Police (@WHPoliceDept) Car jumps curb at Taco Bell on 3rd St in Winter Haven. No injuries to 77 yr-old driver or passenger, customers or workers. Building has significant damage. pic.twitter.com/FSeLSL82lA

And these were just the latest hot-sauce-linked miracles. A few years ago, what was almost a hot sauce tragedy became quite the opposite. A visitor to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, took on a local store’s challenge to try some of its spiciest sauce, an endeavor so risky that it requires signing a waiver, the Chicago Tribune reported. The Pepper Place’s Flashbang sauce is said to contain a brutal combination of Carolina reaper, scorpion and habanero peppers. When Randy Schmitz, 30, tasted some on a toothpick, he fell to the ground and began convulsing.

The seizure led to an MRI that revealed a malignant tumor in his brain, which was removed days later. “If I didn’t try that [hot sauce], I think something eventually would have triggered the seizure and I would’ve found out, but that cancer tumor would’ve grown in my head,” Schmitz told the Tribune.

Should Taylor, Schmitz, and other hot sauce devotees wish to honor the life-saving flavoring while taking their marriage vows, they should head to Las Vegas: a Taco Bell in the city offers wedding bouquets made of hot sauce packets.