Overview

• On June 2 at around 2 p.m., a 25-year-old bull named Plai Biang Lek squeezed into a Nakhon Ratchasima grocery store and spent about ten minutes sampling snacks.
• The elephant consumed roughly nine to ten bags of treats, including sweet rice crackers, dried bananas and peanuts, leaving an estimated 800-baht ($25) tab unpaid.
• After wedging its back under the store’s low roof, Plai Biang Lek was gently ushered back outside by shopkeeper Khamploi Kakaew and wildlife rangers.
• The incident underscores growing human-elephant clashes in Thailand as agricultural expansion encroaches on traditional habitats for over 4,000 wild elephants.
• Footage of the incident has gone viral online, amassing millions of views and prompting widespread discussion over wildlife management in Thailand.