Two inmates escape from jail by using a toothbrush and metal scoop to break down wall

A manhunt in the US has come to a sort-of tasty end, with two escaped prisoners captured by police when they stopped for pancakes.

Arley Nemo, 43, and John Garza, 37, fled from the Newport News Jail Annex in Virginia after deploying a daring escape method usually only ever seen in the movies.

But it wasn't the prison guards, police, or a well-meaning citizen's arrest that stopped the two convicts in their tracks.

Instead, the Daily Express reports it was the allure of golden pancake stacks that invariably proved too hard to resist for the two men on the lam.

Fair enough, really. They'd likely eaten nothing but crummy jail food for goodness knows how long.

In a somewhat amusing twist, their pancake pause brought an end to their fleeting freedom.

But we'll get to that later.

Now we are not pro-crime or anything, but we do have to admit Nemo and Garza's technique for freedom was impressive.

The two men were armed with nothing but a can-do attitude, a metal scoop, and a toothbrush.

Once they found a 'design weakness' in their cell wall, they then fell back on a tactic that movie buffs may recognise from the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption.

As per AP, the Newport News Sheriff’s Office claimed the pair used their 'primitive' tools to carve out a hole to freedom.

Once they were clear of their cell they then legged it across the yard, scaled the perimeter wall of the prison, and vanished into the night.

However, their sojourn into the outside world would only be a brief one.

Here's where the power of pancakes comes in.

The two were spotted at an IHOP at 4.20am, seven hours after their daring escape from the jail, which was only a mere 6.6 miles down the road.

But even the most hardened criminals cannot withstand the temptation of IHOP.

We can only assume the two were attracted to the pancake parlor like moths to a flame.

We can just picture the two hardened criminals making their way through the dark, spooky forest, trying to avoid detection whilst being propelled forward by the golden smell of those sweet, fluffy bad boys the breakfast restaurant is famous for.

Anyway, we've somehow digressed.

Someone in the IHOP spotted the two self-liberated convicts as they chowed down on their pancakey pillow delights.

They alerted the authorities after recognising them from news coverage about their brazen jailbreak.

According to the Daily Mail, Sheriff Gabe Morgan said that the eyewitness report backs up a commonly used cop credence.

"It reinforces what we always say, 'See something, say something'," Morgan said.

Nemo and Garza were apprehended and returned to the custody of the US Corrections Department on Tuesday (March 21).

An investigation is now underway to prevent future toothbrush-related escapes from occurring at the Newport News Jail Annex.