An inmate who escaped a Santa Cruz jail this morning, the second in the city in four years, was barely four months away from being released. So reports Bay City News, which explains that the man made a dash for it while on the kitchen crew and somehow managed to evade the guards.

20-year-old Karma Mendenhall worked on a crew that did meal preparation for county jails, and as part of that job he traveled to other jails. It was while he was at the main Santa Cruz jail located at 259 Water Street that he made his escape.

Mendenhall reportedly took off running and made it to a "levee area behind the jail" where, apparently, guards lost track of him. He was scheduled to be released on October 29, and was serving his sentence at Rountree Minimum Security Jail. He had been convicted of misdemeanor offense.

This escape vaguely calls to mind a 2012 Santa Cruz jailbreak, wherein NBC 8 reports that an inmate escaped from the same jail for reasons of the heart.

"I want everyone to know that I did it for love," Craig Souza explained.

At this time Mendenhall's motivations, perhaps other than the obvious one that jail is a miserable place to be, are unknown. Anyone with information as to his whereabouts can call the sheriff’s office at 831-741-1121.

Related: SF Jail Escapee Was Major Drug Kingpin, No One Knows How He Got Low-Security Clearance