A hungry wild elephant wandered into a village and stole food from a parked car.

The jumbo named Plai Diew Lub found the vehicle at a campsite beside the national park while looking for breakfast in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand on July 9.

Clever Plai Diew Lub went straight for a black sedan that was left open and began to rummage through the family's belongings.

Footage shows the creature picking up items from the back of the vehicle. It put objects in its mouth and tried to open them before park officers arrived.

Peerapat Pete Boontan, who was on a Sunday camping trip when the elephant appeared, said: ‘It tried to taste the tent. After confirming there wasn't food inside, it threw the bag away.'

The other campers could only watch the jumbo take things from the cars before a park officer arrived on a pickup truck.

Naughty Plai Diew Lub was slapped on the bottom by a park ranger and backed away.

Peerapat said: ‘The elephant did not hurt anyone but it tried to steal people's things. It was so naughty.'

As of 2023, there are an estimated 3,084-3,500 wild elephants in Thailand. The population has been increasing in recent years, but it is still a fraction of the estimated 300,000 wild elephants that lived in Thailand at the beginning of the 20th century.

The main threats to wild elephants in Thailand are habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and conflict with humans.