Merry Christmas, Jerks.

I know some people in Colorado Springs who will be getting a lump of coal in next year's stocking.   Or at least will have to climb a tree for their paper every morning.    Read on for the story about the million dollar "joke" - kinda cold, no?

It was no Miracle on 34th Street...

A Colorado newspaper deliveryman thought he had received the most generous gift ever from one of his customers … until he went to the bank.

Craig Jackson sends holiday cards to his customers each year in Colorado Springs. This year he got one in return that contained a check made payable to him and his wife for a whopping $1 million, Fox31 reports.

"It was a real check from somebody's bank account," Jackson told Fox31.

Jackson thought he had hit the jackpot and that his days in a heaterless two-bedroom trailer were over.

He and his wife were up all night thinking their prayers had been answered.

"We could get the vehicles fixed, you know," Jackson said. "I'm borrowing vehicles to do my route."

Skeptical but hopeful, Jackson went to the bank only to find out the money was a hoax.

"I took it down to the bank and showed it to them. They looked on the account and they didn't have the funds," Jackson said. "They said it was a real check and they called her and they said it was a joke," Fox31 reports.

The deflated couple sent the check-writer a letter thanking her for crushing their dreams and for extinguishing their belief in miracles.

The bank is now investigating the check writer for fraud.

(via Fox News)