The elephant in the room: Massive shoplifter steals snacks from shop and leaves owner speechless
One shop customer didn’t pay for their items, leaving the owner with no choice but to let them go.
I often take a quick trip to the local shop in search of a snack. But I’ve never come across an elephant on my travels. In early June 2025, a wild elephant named Plai Biang Lek made headlines in northeastern Thailand by entering a grocery store near Khao Yai National Park in search of food.
The 30-year-old male elephant, known for his frequent forays into human settlements, calmly munched on several bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich, and dried bananas.
Danai Sookkanthachat, a volunteer park worker familiar with the elephant told AP that “after he left the shop” the cheeky elephant “went on to open a bedroom window of another house“, adding that the 30-year-old animal often enters people’s houses for food.
This incident underscores the growing challenges of human-elephant interactions in Thailand. As agricultural expansion encroaches upon natural habitats, elephants like Plai Biang Lek are increasingly venturing into human-populated areas in search of food.
According to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Thailand’s wild elephant population was estimated at 4,000 in 2024.
Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are the largest land mammals on the Asian continent, inhabiting forests and grasslands across South and Southeast Asia. They are highly social and intelligent creatures, typically forming matriarchal groups of related females and their offspring.
Despite their cultural significance and ecological importance, Asian elephants are classified as endangered, with fewer than 50,000 individuals remaining in the wild. Major threats to their survival include habitat loss, human-elephant conflict, and poaching.
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