A wild elephant stunned locals in northeastern Thailand on Monday when it wandered into a grocery store near Khao Yai National Park and helped itself to a snack spree, leaving only muddy footprints and a broken ceiling panel behind.
The elephant, known to locals as Plai Biang Lek, made a brief but memorable appearance at the roadside store. Surveillance and social media footage showed the massive 30-year-old bull calmly strolling in, heading straight for the shelves, and grabbing bags of food with his trunk — undeterred by attempts from park officials to usher him out.
“He ate about nine bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich, and some dried bananas I had just bought,” store owner Kamploy Kakaew said in a video produced by AFP, chuckling at the memory. Fortunately, no one was harmed during the incident.
After finishing his snack, Plai Biang Lek backed out of the shop — still holding a bag — and continued on his way. According to Danai Sookkanthachat, a park volunteer familiar with the elephant, this was the first time he had seen the animal enter a store, though it’s not unusual for elephants in the area to break into homes looking for food.
“After he left the shop, he went on to open a bedroom window of another house,” Danai told The Associated Press.
Experts say the increasing presence of elephants in human spaces stems from their shrinking natural habitats. As agriculture encroaches on forest land, Thailand’s estimated 4,000 wild elephants are being forced to seek food in nearby communities — a growing issue that, while sometimes amusing, has also led to dangerous encounters.
