diff --git a/app/models/event.rb b/app/models/event.rb
index 74525c12b32..a71d598a6fc 100644
--- a/app/models/event.rb
+++ b/app/models/event.rb
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
   belongs_to :project
   belongs_to :target, :polymorphic => true
 
-  serialize :data
+  serialize :data, GitlabSerialize.new
 
   scope :recent, order("created_at DESC")
   scope :code_push, where(:action => Pushed)
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
   end
 
   def push?
-    action == self.class::Pushed
+    action == self.class::Pushed && valid_push?
   end
 
   def merged?
diff --git a/app/models/event/push_trait.rb b/app/models/event/push_trait.rb
index cf0bc731f8b..4e131cec8e2 100644
--- a/app/models/event/push_trait.rb
+++ b/app/models/event/push_trait.rb
@@ -1,19 +1,25 @@
 module Event::PushTrait
   as_trait do
+    def valid_push?
+      data["ref"]
+    rescue => ex
+      false
+    end
+
     def tag? 
-      data[:ref]["refs/tags"]
+      data["ref"]["refs/tags"]
     end
 
     def new_branch?
-      data[:before] =~ /^00000/
+      commit_from =~ /^00000/
     end
 
     def new_ref?
-      data[:before] =~ /^00000/
+      commit_from =~ /^00000/
     end
 
     def rm_ref?
-      data[:after] =~ /^00000/
+      commit_to =~ /^00000/
     end
 
     def md_ref? 
@@ -21,11 +27,11 @@ module Event::PushTrait
     end
 
     def commit_from
-      data[:before]
+      data["before"]
     end
 
     def commit_to
-      data[:after]
+      data["after"]
     end
 
     def ref_name 
@@ -37,16 +43,16 @@ module Event::PushTrait
     end
 
     def branch_name
-      @branch_name ||= data[:ref].gsub("refs/heads/", "")
+      @branch_name ||= data["ref"].gsub("refs/heads/", "")
     end
 
     def tag_name
-      @tag_name ||= data[:ref].gsub("refs/tags/", "")
+      @tag_name ||= data["ref"].gsub("refs/tags/", "")
     end
   
     def commits
-      @commits ||= data[:commits].map do |commit|
-        project.commit(commit[:id])
+      @commits ||= data["commits"].map do |commit|
+        project.commit(commit["id"])
       end
     end
 
diff --git a/app/models/gitlab_serialize.rb b/app/models/gitlab_serialize.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d5fda2a7a66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/models/gitlab_serialize.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+class GitlabSerialize
+  # Called to deserialize data to ruby object.
+  def load(data)
+    JSON.load(data)
+  rescue JSON::ParserError
+    begin
+      YAML.load(data)
+    rescue Psych::SyntaxError
+      nil
+    end
+  end
+
+  # Called to convert from ruby object to serialized data.
+  def dump(obj)
+    JSON.dump(obj)
+  end
+end
diff --git a/app/views/dashboard/index.html.haml b/app/views/dashboard/index.html.haml
index d25c7562a5f..cd81724c6d5 100644
--- a/app/views/dashboard/index.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/dashboard/index.html.haml
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
                   = link_to profile_path, :class => "btn" do 
                     Your Profile » 
         .span10.left= render "dashboard/projects_feed", :projects => @active_projects
-      - if @last_push
+      - if @last_push && @last_push.valid_push?
         .padded.prepend-top-20
           %h5
             %small Latest push was to the #{@last_push.branch_name} branch of #{@last_push.project.name}: