diff --git a/plugins/dates/src/api/dates.js b/plugins/dates/src/api/dates.js
index 0615b7884..8e0b98f62 100644
--- a/plugins/dates/src/api/dates.js
+++ b/plugins/dates/src/api/dates.js
@@ -40,7 +40,9 @@ const api = function (View) {
         let json = m.toView().json(opts)[0] || {}
         if (opts && opts.dates !== false) {
           let parsed = parseDates(m, this.opts)
-          json.dates = toJSON(parsed[0])
+          if (parsed.length > 0) {
+            json.dates = toJSON(parsed[0])
+          }
         }
         return json
       }, [])
diff --git a/plugins/dates/src/api/toJSON.js b/plugins/dates/src/api/toJSON.js
index 40d7c428c..3a6d2e67f 100644
--- a/plugins/dates/src/api/toJSON.js
+++ b/plugins/dates/src/api/toJSON.js
@@ -6,14 +6,6 @@ const getDuration = function (range) {
   return diff
 }
 
-// const getRange = function (diff) {
-//   if (diff.years) {
-//     return 'decade'
-//   }
-//   // console.log(diff)
-//   return null
-// }
-
 const toJSON = function (range) {
   if (!range.start) {
     return {
diff --git a/scratch.js b/scratch.js
index e70e603eb..2b2035fa1 100644
--- a/scratch.js
+++ b/scratch.js
@@ -4,10 +4,14 @@ import plg from './plugins/dates/src/plugin.js'
 nlp.plugin(plg)
 // nlp.verbose('tagger')
 
+const text = `May 2015, 61138`;
 
-const doc = nlp('one match match after')
+const processed = nlp(text);
+const dateTimes = processed.dates().json(); // Error
+
+// const doc = nlp('one match match after')
 // doc.match('one .* after').debug() // works
-doc.match('[one match+ after]', 0).debug() //bad
+// doc.match('[one match+ after]', 0).debug() //bad
 
 // -bury
 // -ford