lib/PublicInbox/MsgTime.pm | 3 ++-
 t/msgtime.t                | 7 +++++++

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/MsgTime.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/MsgTime.pm
index 8eee9a7586922c0fb302421c4c195b4540793fd2..8703d7bc0a78293dbe4735e34c5a339ad8cffb6c 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/MsgTime.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/MsgTime.pm
@@ -104,7 +104,8 @@
 		# off is the time zone offset in seconds from GMT
 		my ($ss,$mm,$hh,$day,$month,$year,$off) =
 					Date::Parse::strptime($date);
-		return undef unless(defined $off);
+		return unless defined($year);
+		$off //= 0;
 
 		# Compute the time zone from offset
 		my $sign = ($off < 0) ? '-' : '+';
diff --git a/t/msgtime.t b/t/msgtime.t
index 5c4636a2da73894b344d80714451e7ea20be6dbe..7c95e547d5bf98dcb877737d73a2c32c1339eef3 100644
--- a/t/msgtime.t
+++ b/t/msgtime.t
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ use warnings;
 use Test::More;
 use PublicInbox::MIME;
 use PublicInbox::MsgTime;
+use PublicInbox::TestCommon;
+
 our $received_date = 'Mon, 22 Jan 2007 13:16:24 -0500';
 sub datestamp ($) {
 	my ($date) = @_;
@@ -101,6 +103,11 @@ is_datestamp('Wed, 20 Dec 2006 05:32:58 +0420', [1166577178, '+0420']);
 is_datestamp('Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:20:24 +0480', [1166036424, '+0520']);
 is_datestamp('Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:20:24 -0480', [1166074824, '-0520']);
 is_datestamp('Mon, 14 Apr 2014 07:59:01 -0007', [1397462761, '-0007']);
+
+SKIP: {
+	require_mods('Date::Parse', 1);
+	is_datestamp('Sat, 27 Sep 1997 10:02:32', [875354552, '+0000']);
+}
 
 # obsolete formats described in RFC2822
 for (qw(UT GMT Z)) {