A wild elephant walks into a store…
It may sound like the opening line to a groaner of a bar joke, but it’s what actually happened this week at a Thailand grocery store near a national park.
Plai Biang Lek, a 27-year-old male already known locally for breaking into homes, was on a mission to find sweets. Security footage caught him hesitating outside the store before ducking in and heading straight for the snacks.
“Around 2 p.m., the elephant just walked right up,” the shop’s owner, Kamploy Kakaew, told CNN. “I came out and tried to shoo it away. I told it not to come closer. … But it didn’t listen. It was like it came on purpose.”
Homing in on the sweets, Plai Biang Lek walked up to the candy counter and “gently” moved a freezer out of the way with his trunk, Kakaew said. The elephant then proceeded to scarf “about 10 bags of sweets,” as well as a sandwich, peanut snacks and some dried bananas.
Workers from nearby Khao Yai National Park arrived and tried to coax the elephant out of the store, but he took his sweet time. Roughly 10 minutes later, the animal finally backed out of the shop, clutching one last bag of snacks in his trunk.
Although no one was injured, the shop was out 800 baht, or about $25 — but not for long. A wildlife protection group came to the store and covered the elephant’s tab.
As far as park volunteer Danai Sookkanthachat could recall, this was Plai Biang Lek’s first foray into a grocery store. After the mini-sojourn, the elephant went back to business as usual.
“After he left the shop, he went on to open a bedroom window of another house,” Danai told The Associated Press.
Thailand is home to an estimated 4,000 endangered Asian elephants, up to 200 of which live in the Khao Yai National Park. Tourism, logging, poaching and other forces have eaten away at their habitat, forcing them to seek food in ever more eclectic places.
With News Wire Services
