  We report the first detection of the lowest CO transition in a sub-millimetre
bright galaxy and extremely red object (ERO) at z = 1.44 using the Very Large
Array. The total J = 1 - 0 line luminosity of ERO J164502+4626.4 is (7+-1) x
10^{10} K km s^{-1} pc^2, which yields a total molecular gas mass of ~6 x
10^{10} Msun. We also present a map of the 850-um continuum emission obtained
using SCUBA, from which we infer a far-IR luminosity and dust mass of L_FIR ~ 9
x 10^{12} Lsun and M_d ~ 9 x 10^{8} Msun. We find tentative evidence that the
CO and sub-mm dust emission is extended over several tens of kpc. If confirmed
by high-resolution imaging, this implies that ERO J164502+4626.4 is not simply
a high redshift counterpart of a typical Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxy
(ULIRG).
