Notorious Thai elephant raids grocery store for snacks as owner watches on

A towering wild elephant from a national park in northeastern Thailand veered off its forest trail and ambled into a grocery store, toppling shelves and helping himself to snacks.

The elephant named Plai Biang Lek from the Khao Yai National Park caused quite a stir at the shop in Pak Chong district of the Nakhon Ratchasima province when it unexpectedly entered at around 3pm local time on Monday, surprising the owner.

The store is only about a kilometre from one of the park’s entrances, local media reported, and Plai Biang Lek is apparently a regular around the village that borders the park.

The 23-year-old elephant entered the store while the owner was attending a customer, The Bangkok Post reported. There was immediate panic as both the shopkeeper and the customer bolted out and alerted park officials.

The video of Plai Biang Lek’s snack raid went viral in Thailand after it was shared by the Facebook page “Here is Khao Yai” on Monday afternoon. It showed the tusker casually walking into the shop, his head nearly scraping the ceiling, grabbing snacks, and then walking out.

In spite of the chaos that his presence caused in the store, Plai Biang Lek appeared unfazed. In the video the elephant can be seen poking around the shelves with his trunk and paying no heed to the desperate attempts by the owner to try and get him to leave.

After about 10 minutes of searching and eating snacks, the elephant strolled back towards the forest, leaving behind a mess of leftovers and toppled goods all across the shop floor.

No one was injured during Plai Biang Lek’s snack hunt.

The elephant’s snack raid sparked amused reactions on Thai social media. “Would you like some pork buns?” one Facebook user wrote. Another joked about the elephant wanting to try some beers but not getting any because he could not open the refrigerator door.

“It’s a big customer,” another said.

The elephant often appears near human settlements around the forest looking for food, Khaosod English noted. “Locals are accustomed to seeing Plai Biang Lek passing by this particular store, but he has never before attempted to enter,” the outlet said. “This time, however, Plai Biang Lek surprised and alarmed the residents and store owner by walking right inside.

In February this year, he raided a small restaurant in Nakhon Ratchasima in search of food. The elephant wandered into the outdoor kitchen, knocking over chairs and kitchenware while foraging for leftovers. It reportedly took about 30 minutes to coax Plai Biang Lek out of the restaurant with metal poles.

In 2021, a giant monitor lizard caused a stir after entering a supermarket in Nakhon Pathom. A viral video showed the lizard climbing the shelves with shoppers screaming in the background and trying to flee.

And in another incident from 2021, a woman in Thailand’s Hua Hin district was stunned to find a wild elephant breaking into her kitchen at 2am in search of food, with viral footage showing the animal poking its head and trunk through a hole it made in the wall.