An inmate escaped from the King County Jail back on Aug. 23. He managed to slip by security and walk right out the front door with a group of inmates being processed for release.

Joseph Matthew Tramato, 49, was arrested on burglary and drug charges. He has an extensive criminal record, according to Srgt. Sean Whitcomb at the Seattle Police Department. He also has the word “ZOOM” tattooed across the back of his head in thick black letters. He was on the lam for nearly a month. Until Wednesday night.

Tremato, for whatever reason, sent a text to Scotty Bach, a Seattle Police Major Crimes Task Force (MCTF) supervisor. In the text, Tremato called Bach a homophobic slur and suggested he perform a sex act.

“We had no leads,” Whitcomb said. “Then he just texted us.”

Bach had investigated Tremato before, Whitcomb said. What he didn’t say was what exactly the slur was—“You can imagine what it was” was all he said—and he sighed softly and said, “No, I can’t say that,” when asked to elaborate further on what the possible sex act was. That will just have to be left up to the imagination, too.

After receiving the lewd text, SPD petitioned for a search warrant into Tremato’s phone records. They got them, traced where the text was sent from, and arrested Tremato in the University District on the 4500 block of 5th Avenue.

Tremato, the bit of meth he was carrying, and his friend/other burglary suspect were taken into custody. They were placed under arrest—except for the meth, that was placed into evidence.

Whitcomb couldn’t say much more about the details of Tremato’s escape.

“He walked right out the front door,” Whitcomb said. “It was brilliant in its simplicity.”

Whitcomb said that however Tremato did it, he clearly had hatched a really good plan. But, that was all blown with a text.