A hungry wild elephant raids a grocery store in Thailand for snacks

BANGKOK AP A hungry wild elephant caused havoc in a grocery store in Thailand on Monday when he strolled in from a nearby national park and helped himself to food on the shelves Videos of the matter manifested the huge male elephant known as Plai Biang Lek briefly stopping in front of the shop located next to a main road near the Khao Yai National Park in northeastern Thailand before ducking his whole body inside The elephant stopped in front of the shop s counter calmly snatching and chomping snacks and did not flinch as the national park workers tried to shoo him away The elephant later backed out of the shop still holding a bag of snacks with his trunk He left little damage behind except mud tracks on the floor and the ceiling of the shop In a video posted on social media Kamploy Kakaew the shop owner appeared amused as she described the moment the elephant rifled her shop She mentioned he ate about nine bags of sweet rice crackers a sandwich and various dried bananas she had bought that morning Kamploy announced the elephant left without hurting anyone after getting his snacks Danai Sookkanthachat a volunteer park worker familiar with the elephant announced Plai Biang Lek who is about years old is a familiar sight in the area and has been known to enter people s houses in search of food This was the first time he had seen him going into a grocery store After he left the shop he went on to open a bedroom window of another house he explained The Associated Press Danai mentioned wild elephants in the Khao Yai National Park area have been coming out of the woods to ransack people s kitchens for a large number of years but this year he has started seeing them going into more random places to find food There were an estimated wild elephants in Thailand in according to the Department of National Parks Wildlife and Plant Conservation As farmers push into forests for agriculture elephants have been forced to venture out of their shrinking habitats in search of food leading to confrontations that can turn deadly