A hungry wild elephant surprised everyone when it walked into a grocery store in Thailand looking for food. The elephant, named Plai Biang Lek, came from the nearby Khao Yai National Park.
In a video that quickly went viral on social media, the big male elephant is seen standing at the entrance of the store. He calmly walked inside, picked up snacks with his trunk, and started eating them. Even when park workers tried to make him leave, he didn’t seem scared and stayed in the store.
Luckily, the elephant didn’t break anything major. He only left muddy footprints on the floor and caused slight damage to the ceiling. After grabbing a bag of snacks, he walked out of the store peacefully.
Kamploy Kakaew, the shop owner, said she wasn’t angry and found the situation amusing. She shared that the elephant ate nine bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich, and some dried bananas she had just bought that morning.
Danai Sookkanthachat, a park volunteer who knows this elephant well, said that Lek is around 30 years old. While the elephant has entered homes before, this is the first time he walked into a grocery store.
After leaving the store, Lek even went to another house and opened a bedroom window—probably still looking for more food.
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Danai explained that wild elephants have been leaving the forest for years to look for food in people’s homes. But now, they are entering random places more often.
According to Thailand’s Department of National Parks, there are about 4,000 wild elephants in the country. But because farmers are using more forest land for farming, elephants are losing their natural homes and are coming closer to human areas for food. This raises the chance of risky encounters between elephants and people.
