Inmates Documented Their Own Escape on Smuggled Cell Phone, and Posed for Photos

Three inmates did not shy away from the camera as they slipped out of a California jail, filming their escape and posing for photos along the way.

Read: Grandmother Convinces Escaped Inmate to Give Himself Up

Hossein Nayeri, 37, Bac Duong, 43, and Jonathan Tieu, 20, all awaiting trial for violent crimes that included attempted murder and torture, documented their escape from the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana on a smuggled cell phone.

While the escape took place in January 2016, the footage and images were released this week by an attorney connected to the case, according to the New York Daily News.

Nayeri was busted in 2013 and accused of playing a role the kidnapping of a marijuana dispensary owner who was tortured with a blowtorch and had his penis cut off, according to The Associated Press.

Duong had been held in facing multiple charges, including attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, in connection to a December 2015 gang shooting.

At the time of the escape, Tieu was awaiting retrial in a similar gang-related shooting that took place in March 2011.

In the video of the escape, one inmate is seen shimmying through an air vent from his cell after they sawed a leg off a bunk and cut a hole in the vent.

He is seen giving a "thumbs up" in the video after successfully entering the vent.

The men made a homemade ladder out of rope and bedsheets to get to the roof after crawling through the walls of the prison, and one of them posed for a photo with their makeshift ladder.

After sawing through iron bars, the three made it onto the roof of the jail, taking another photo to show their achievement.

Then, the men cut through barbed wire and rappelled down five stories using additional rope.

Once they were free, the inmates kidnapped a cab driver and forced him to drive them north to San Francisco, where they stopped along the way, snapping photos like tourists.

Even their kidnapped cab driver appeared in the images.

Read: Fugitive on the Lam for 4 Years Gets Arrested After Flagging Down Cop for a Ride

In the video, Nayeri showed off their hideout, a stolen van stocked with bedding and supplies that included water, bananas, and marijuana.

But it wasn't meant to last, as the jailbirds' liberation came to an end eight days later, when they were captured and hauled back to the jail.

Watch: Wrongly Convicted Man Is Free After Spending 20 Years of Life Sentence in Prison