Through a hole in a holding room at Circuit Court, 21 year old Darius Punimau did the unthinkable, the never done before.

"I think he probably saw Mission Impossible and got the idea," said State Sheriff Shawn Tsuha.

He said, on Wednesday, Punimau was one of up to a dozen inmates, or custodies, waiting to talk to their lawyers before court.

"There was a high amount of custodies that day," he said.

He says it was so busy they didn't have a sheriff's deputy to staff the room, which is not unusual, only one behind the glass, with a computer facing the other way.

"He was one of the seven to 12 (people) that was at the end booth," he said.

At around 11 a.m., they say Punimau somehow reached up and escaped through the tiles in the ceiling, leaving only footprints and a slipper behind.

"He made his way using the different supports for the conduits and AC venting. He was able to find an unoccupied closet, which he dropped into," said Tsuha.

Tsuha said Punimau then missed getting detected by a security camera in the hallway and slipped out an exit about five feet away, where deputies found tracks and dust from the ceiling.

The sheriff's department was careful about revealing specific details, but Tsuha said they were tracking a vehicle that they knew had connections to Punimau, to the Safeway parking lot on Pali Hwy. and Vineyard Blvd. in Honolulu.