diff --git a/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/io/arc/ARCRecord.java b/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/io/arc/ARCRecord.java
index 3e5b73ea..b0006081 100644
--- a/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/io/arc/ARCRecord.java
+++ b/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/io/arc/ARCRecord.java
@@ -517,8 +517,9 @@ public class ARCRecord extends ArchiveRecord implements ARCConstants {
         byte [] statusBytes = HttpParser.readRawLine(getIn());
         int eolCharCount = getEolCharsCount(statusBytes);
         if (eolCharCount <= 0) {
-            throw new RecoverableIOException("Failed to read http status where one " +
-                " was expected: " + new String(statusBytes));
+            throw new RecoverableIOException(
+                "Failed to read http status where one was expected: " 
+                + ((statusBytes == null) ? "" : new String(statusBytes)));
         }
         String statusLine = EncodingUtil.getString(statusBytes, 0,
             statusBytes.length - eolCharCount, ARCConstants.DEFAULT_ENCODING);