Police are now looking for two inmates who chipped their way out through an 18-inch hole of the high-security Union County jail in New Jersey, leaving behind a "Happy Holidays" note complete with a smiley.

Jose Espinosa, 20, and Otis Blunt, 32, who are considered armed and dangerous, used a long metal wire to scrape away mortar around the cinder block between their cells and in the outer wall in Espinosa's cell, police said.

They hung photographs of bikini-clad women to hide the holes in the walls. They also laid out pillows and sheets to make it look like men were sleeping under blankets.

Espinosa, who recently pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, was to be sentenced January 25 and faced a minimum of 17 years in prison. Blunt was being held in lieu of a $75,000 bond on weapon and robbery charges, The Associated Press reported.

The escape preparations appear to have been done quickly because each man was in his cell for only a few weeks. It was the first escape since the jail opened in 1986.