DENVER -- A Lafayette, Colo., man who claimed his Christmas lights could be controlled by Web visitors from all over the world admitted Monday that it was all a big hoax.

Alek Komarnitsky claimed that his 17,000 Christmas lights on his home were connected to his computer through a well-known computer device controller and said that he had written computer code that allowed Internet visitors to activate the various zones of the lights around his home when they visited his Web site.

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Colorado Home Display Is Internet Controlled

The story was picked up by local media and The Associated Press, which distributed the story nationwide. 7NEWS picked up the story and took Komarnitsky up in Airtracker 7 as he explained how the lights were controlled by Internet users.

Komarnitsky said that more than 1.3 million people had visited his site in the first two weeks of December following local media coverage. He continued with his story until a Wall Street Journal reporter began investigating and confirmed the ruse. That's when he admitted that the Web cam and Web controller didn't exist and that he had lied about the Internet hookup.

The Lafayette man said he accomplished the computer trickery by taking 12 "base" photographs of the house with lights on and off and then constructed a Web page that appeared to show lights going on and off when the Web visitor clicked.

"I got a chuckle out of putting a clock up in the window and having the hands of the clock display the right time (it actually started out 3 minutes slow, but then gained a minute a day, until it was 4 minutes fast, and then reset itself) -- again, all computer trickery!" Komarnitsky said on his Web site Monday.

Komarnitsky said when he went up in Airtracker 7 for a live report on his Christmas lights that his wife was actually on the ground turning the lights on and off -- not Internet visitors.

"We took the guy at his word, and obviously that was a mistake," Byron Grandy, the news director at KMGH TV, told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

"First, let me say there was never any malicious intent here. It started out (as) a 'technology puzzle' and I figured I could provide some holiday cheer to folks," Komarnitsky explained on his site.

"I apologize to those people who may be angry with me, but hopefully most will see the humor in the whole situation ... and realize that my attempt to bring joy and a smile to people's faces was successful," he said.

On Tuesday, Komarnitsky was busy keeping track of all the Web sites that covered the story of his hoax.