Death and diesel: Man in Thailand brings coffin to petrol station, says he needs fuel for cremation

An undertaker in Thailand reportedly showed a coffin containing a corpse to petrol station staff to prove he needed fuel for a cremation after being refused service.

Speaking in Thai during a livestream on Facebook, Preecha Ngernkasem, 48, who works at a temple in Ban Bueng, Chonburi, said:  "I went to ask for fuel at the petrol station, but they didn't fill the jerrycans for me."

He had earlier collected the body of an unidentified homeless man who had died of unknown causes from a Chonburi hospital, and had stopped his pickup truck en route at the petrol station, AFP reported. 

Bangkok publication The Nation quoted him as saying that he had to do the cremation quickly as the deceased's family couldn't afford to store the body much longer.

"I decided to take the coffin and put it in (the back of my vehicle) along with the jerrycans," Preecha said.

However, the petrol station staff refused to fill his 18-litre jerrycans because of the recent implementation of strict policies against fuel hoarding, following the war in the Middle East.

Preecha then parked his vehicle, stepped out, walked to the rear of his car and opened the boot, revealing a white coffin and the jerrycans, packed neatly alongside each other.

After displaying the coffin as proof, he managed to convince the gas station manager, who then asked his staff members to help him fill his jerrycans.

The dead man was reportedly given an appropriate cremation on March 28.

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khooyihang@asiaone.com