A 30-year-old elephant named Plai Biang Lek escaped Khao Yai National Park and went shopping on June 2 in Bangkok, Thailand, the Associated Press reported. The male pachyderm ducked through the door of a grocery store and helped itself to snacks while park workers tried to shoo it out. When he was ready to go, he backed out the door, still holding a bag of treats with his trunk. The only damage to the shop was mud tracks on the floor. Kamploy Kakaew, the store’s owner, said the elephant ate nine bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich and some dried bananas.
A tourist hot spot
Turkmenistan’s top tourist attraction is the Gateway to Hell, a gas leak that has been burning since 1971 in the Karakum Desert, Yahoo! News reported on June 5. The fire started when Soviet scientists accidentally drilled into an underground pocket of gas, starting a blaze that could be seen from several kilometers away. Officials recently announced that the fire has been reduced three-fold. “Today only a faint source of combustion remains,” said Irina Luryeva, a director at the state-owned energy company Turkmengaz. Wells have been drilled around the site to capture the methane from the leak, she said.
Two-for-one deal
Richard Pruneda, 42, of Edinburg, Texas, managed to get himself arrested twice over the Memorial Day weekend in Eddyville, Ky., the West Kentucky Star reported. The Lyon County Sheriff was called on May 25 to a business where Pruneda allegedly was intoxicated and making “alarming” statements to an employee. The next day, after bonding out of jail, Pruneda called the sheriff’s office to ask about retrieving personal items from his impounded car. When the officer picked up and inventoried the items, he found cocaine in the trunk. Police went to Pruneda’s motel and arrested him for a second time.
Speed bump
Two motorcyclists were injured on May 31 in Volusia County, Fla., after they hit an alligator crossing the interstate, WFOL-TV reported. Cameron Gilmore, 67, said he and Brandi Goss, 25, were riding with a larger group when he saw a “big blob in the road.” Goss elaborated: “I just seen something and ... it was too late,” she said. Goss sustained a concussion and cracked wrist bone; Gilmore had a broken foot and toes. The alligator’s fate is unknown.
Cricket attack
Here’s one way to disrupt government: At a Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) commission meeting on June 3, a protester released an “unknown” number of crickets, WBTV reported. “She dropped something from the balcony,” one commissioner said. Crickets were “everywhere on the walls, on the stairs” and “in the balcony,” commissioners said. Board chair Mark Jerrell stopped the meeting, saying, “It’s shameful. Shameful. You can leave, thank you very much, we appreciate it.” After protesters were removed, the meeting continued, but commissioners were forced to take a 10-minute recess so the environmental services staff could vacuum up the critters. Jerrell said the commission was familiar with the protesters but that they lost all credibility with the stunt.
A purloined pet
Police in Jacksonville, Fla., are looking for a suspect who “fondled” a $650 ferret for some time at a Petland store, then shoved the animal down his shorts and walked out. The Smoking Gun reported that on May 27, the man “browsed the ferret section of the store” before he left, holding “the crotch area of his shorts to support the ferret.” A Petland manager tried to chase him but couldn’t get the license plate number of the van he was driving.
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