Elephant Lands In Urban Booby Trap!

Photo Courtesy of Matichon Online

RAYONG – Here’s a story about Plaiplu, a three-year-old elephant that fell through a steel grate into a two meter deep drain. It’s a sob story with a delightful ending!

The baby elephant was walking with its owners in front of Rayong Palace hotel, on Ratchabumroong road when a grate buckled and broke from underneath the elephant. It took three hours to rescue Plaiplu!

At 1:20p.m., a journalist reported that Mr. Chaiyon Sriboon, 27-years-old; and brother of Chaiyon, Mr. Thanatip Sriboon, 20-years-old; along with Mr. Wut Yeerum, 18-years-old, had been taking the elephant for a stroll and selling bananas and bags of bamboo.

Traditionally, people would buy these items from the owners and then feed the elephant.

As the group was traveling, they came across a grate measuring one by one meters; and a drain two meters deep. The baby elephant stepped onto it and fell through the grate; its whole body became stuck in the drain, leaving only its head above ground.

The baby elephant moaned in pain for three hours in front of the Rayong Palace Hotel in Rayong – a cry that many will never forget.

Faced with the media, one of the elephant owners, Mr. Wut Yeerum claimed to be the nephew of Tony Jaa, a famous fighter/actor from the movies, ‘Ong Bak’ and ‘Tom Yum Goong’.

However, no one really cared about who the boy was or who he was related to as they concentrated on the poor elephant stuck in the middle of the road.

The Pornguson Charity Group and the city’s firemen came to the scene and immediately set out on a mission to rescue Plaiplu! However, they had issues with the extraction as little Plaiplu was a bit too heavy.

The rescue team used a massive concrete drill to bore holes around the elephant as emergency officers blocked off roads and redirected traffic. Over 100 people gathered around the elephant and began singing to cheer him on. Meanwhile, Plaiplu continued to cuss all sorts of elephant profanities for the better half of an hour.

A man with a guitar reportedly sang ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay.

Officers used the vehicle-mounted-drill to make holes around the drain Plaiplu was stuck in - and rescuers were eventually able to lift the him up from the drain.

Plaiplu’s condition was not too good and he was extremely fatigued after being stuck for three hours. The crowd joined in clapping and singing as he was being pulled up.

Courtesy of Matichon Online

Writer: Adrian Tse & Chet Chetchotisak