It was like "The Shawshank Redemption" — only starring an octopus instead of Tim Robbins.
And the male lead, an octopus named Inky, didn't need a large poster and a rock hammer to break out of the National Aquarium of New Zealand — just an opening in an enclosure and a 6-inch drainpipe.
The soccer ball-size cephalopod most likely slid through a gap in its tank during the night on its way to freedom, an aquarium official told the New Zealand website Stuff.
Inky left octopus tracks for 8 feet across the floor leading toward a small drainpipe that is 164 feet long and leads directly to a bay adjacent to the building. Staff members returned the next day to find Inky gone and another, less daring octopus, Blotchy, still in the tank.
Inky, whose escape happened months ago but just recently has come to the public's attention, had been in the aquarium since 2014 after a fisherman pulled him out of a pot offshore, according to Stuff.
"Octopus are really intelligent animals, very inquisitive, and they also tend to explore whenever they get the chance," aquarium manager Rob Yarrall told New Zealand's Newshub.
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Inky is believed by officials to have made it all the way to the Pacific Ocean. He could possibly be headed to the beach in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, to reunite arm-in-arm-in-arm-in-arm-in-arm-in-arm-in-arm with old friends.
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