Some time in a trucker’s career, you are going to have a confrontation with nature. We’re not talking about that call of nature to dash into a restroom, we are talking about the beautiful, yet, deadly wild animals that call it home.
Meet Fatty, enforcer of the Thailand sugar cane toll road
No sugar cane for Fatty? Well, we can’t have anyone skimping on the toll payments, now can we? – Video:DailyMail
Fatty is a rather infamous wild Asian elephant that calls the Chachoengsao province of Thailand home. In his home country, elephants have the right of way on roads, which Fatty uses to set up his version of a toll road.
As loaded sugarcane trucks pass by, Fatty pops out of the woods and blocks the road just enough to cause the truck to stop. Normally, he just grabs a truckload of the cane that’s headed to the mill for processing, as seen in this video.
But for one trucker in a box truck, sans sugary toll payment, it turned into a brutal beatdown, mafioso style.
What happens when you don’t pay Nature’s toll road
On Saturday, March 4, a box truck was attempting to pass Fatty’s toll booth, an area marked by sugar cane stalks littering the road. Fatty appeared with his massive sweet tooth ready to collect his toll, and well, no tithe was available.
Fatty did not take lightly being stiffed on his payment, using his powerful trunk to search inside the cab for a hidden stash. Not discovering his tribute, Fatty did what any mafioso boss running a business would do, he cleared the road.
Using his multi-ton frame, he easily bumped the truck over and pushed it out of the way. Driver Panida Anuan, who witnessed the beatdown, told reporters “It was so scary. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. We immediately left in case we were next.”
Paramedics arrived and drove the shaken driver to the hospital, where he was treated for minor bruises sustained when the vehicle was pushed over. Fatty is now on the run, as most male elephants do once they are of age, from wildlife rangers seeking to have a word with him over the incident.
As we tell drivers operating in rural areas around the world, “if you ever hear music, especially Italian opera or banjos, be warned that you may soon have a run-in with nature.”
Read more by Rooster and follow me here! Need to reach out to me, send me an email!
Sign up for the Back The Truck Up Newsletter!
Listen to the Back The Truck Up Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcasts!
