Three criminals broke out of a maximum security prison and filmed their daring escape on a mobile phone.
It sounds like a story straight out of a film and – considering what they got up to once they got out – it’s like mixing The Shawshank Redemption with The Hangover.
In January 2016, 37-year-old Hossein Nayeri, 20-year-old Johnathan Tieu and 43-year-old Bac Duong broke out of the Orange County Men’s Central Jail in southern California.
Prior to their escape Nayeri was serving a sentence for kidnapping the owner of ‘Pot Shop’ and cutting off his genitals, Tieu was serving time for murder and attempted murder, whilst Duong had been charged with attempted murder.
With the use of a smuggled cellphone, it was Nayeri who documented their ‘Houdini-like’ escape through a series of plumbing tunnels before reaching the prison roof – where they stopped for the obligatory selfie, because why the hell not, before making their break for freedom, reports NBC.
But the film doesn’t end there – Nayeri films their journey during their time on lamb.
In that period they kidnap and eventually befriend, a 71-year-old Vietnamese immigrant named Long Ma.
In fact Nayeri attributes Ma to keeping the group calm, labelling him a true ‘hero’ who ‘radiated this calm fatherly presence’.
When shit really hit the fan, Duong decided he’d had enough of life on the run and decided to turn himself in.
He hoped by doing so, he’d collect the $2000 reward that was on their heads in the process – now I’m no bounty hunter but I’m pretty sure that’s not how things work when you want to collect a cash reward on an escaped convict.
As for Nayeri and Tieu, they continued to San Francisco where they went site seeing – they also knocked back some whiskey, ate bannas and smoked some of the finest legal marijuana that the state of California had to offer in a stolen van.
After their eventual capture and return to prison, Nayeri passed the footage on to his attorney who in turn, gave it to a local news station.
The intention was to give their story about how they escaped a maximum security facility – that’s meant to hold some of America’s most dangerous criminals – and also to show how they didn’t harm anyone or pose a threat, all while basking in their limited freedom…. if you discount the whole kidnapping an old Vietnamese man that is.
Check out the news report of their incredible escape in the video below:
[ooyala code=”I1aGM1YzE6kJGtFExSkVwhufCvdlbyO7" player_id=”5df2ff5a35d24237905833bd032cd5d8" auto=”true” width=”1280" height=”720" pcode=”twa2oyOnjiGwU8-cvdRQbrVTiR2l”]
Tieu’s and Nayeri’s return to prison was caught on camera, which can also be viewed in the video below:
[ooyala [ooyala code=”ZpbWM1YzE6G3U6bgepkU2Us4sFxM-mOw” player_id=”5df2ff5a35d24237905833bd032cd5d8" auto=”true” width=”854" height=”480" pcode=”twa2oyOnjiGwU8-cvdRQbrVTiR2l”]I guess if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime?
