diff --git a/pkg/operator/controller/ingress/status.go b/pkg/operator/controller/ingress/status.go
index fc9cfbd1e0..fb0e0b0f88 100644
--- a/pkg/operator/controller/ingress/status.go
+++ b/pkg/operator/controller/ingress/status.go
@@ -208,6 +208,9 @@ func computeAllowedSourceRanges(service *corev1.Service) []operatorv1.CIDR {
 // PodsScheduled=True.  This function returns an error value indicating the
 // result of that check.
 func checkPodsScheduledForDeployment(deployment *appsv1.Deployment, pods []corev1.Pod) error {
+	if deployment == nil {
+		return errors.New("Deployment was nil.  This is a bug!")
+	}
 	selector, err := metav1.LabelSelectorAsSelector(deployment.Spec.Selector)
 	if err != nil || selector.Empty() {
 		return errors.New("Deployment has an invalid label selector.")
diff --git a/pkg/operator/controller/ingress/status_test.go b/pkg/operator/controller/ingress/status_test.go
index c7006e40a1..d7b17a6e05 100644
--- a/pkg/operator/controller/ingress/status_test.go
+++ b/pkg/operator/controller/ingress/status_test.go
@@ -208,6 +208,12 @@ func Test_checkPodsScheduledForDeployment(t *testing.T) {
 		pods        []corev1.Pod
 		expectError bool
 	}{
+		{
+			name: "nil deployment",
+			deployment:  nil,
+			pods:        []corev1.Pod{scheduledPod},
+			expectError: true,
+		},
 		{
 			name:        "no pods",
 			deployment:  deployment,