Back in 2014, a fisherman in New Zealand caught an octopus in one of his traps, and gave it to the National Aquarium.  They named it Inky.  And apparently Inky’s been plotting his ESCAPE ever since.

He was living in a tank with another octopus, but disappeared earlier this year . . . and the staff had no idea where he went.

It turns out that in the middle of the night, he managed to squeeze through a small gap in the top of his tank.

Then he crawled about eight feet across the floor to get to a six-inch drainpipe . . .  somehow fit into it . . . followed it for about 165 feet . . . and it drained into the OCEAN.

According to a spokesman for the aquarium, Inky was extremely popular with the staff, so they’re sad he’s gone.  But they’re also happy he made it back home.

And the other octopus in the tank probably won’t miss him, because they prefer to live alone anyway