diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/refdata/CleanedOutSNPROD.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/refdata/CleanedOutSNPROD.java
index 608b93748..4b66e81e8 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/refdata/CleanedOutSNPROD.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/refdata/CleanedOutSNPROD.java
@@ -17,5 +17,8 @@ public class CleanedOutSNPROD extends TabularROD {
         return GenomeLocParser.parseGenomeLoc(this.get("0"));
     }
 
-    public boolean isRealSNP() { return this.get("1").equals(REAL_SNP_STRING); }
+    public boolean isRealSNP() {
+        String s = this.get("1");
+        return s != null && s.equals(REAL_SNP_STRING);
+    }
  }
\ No newline at end of file