diff --git a/brozzler/frontier.py b/brozzler/frontier.py
index 1fbaf13..c6185b8 100644
--- a/brozzler/frontier.py
+++ b/brozzler/frontier.py
@@ -197,12 +197,12 @@ class RethinkDbFrontier:
                                 1).update({
                                     "claimed":True,
                                     "last_claimed_by":worker_id},
-                                    return_changes=True).run()
-        self._vet_result(result, replaced=[0,1])
-        if result["replaced"] == 1:
-            return brozzler.Page(**result["changes"][0]["new_val"])
-        else:
+                                    return_changes="always").run()
+        self._vet_result(result, unchanged=[0,1], replaced=[0,1])
+        if result["unchanged"] == 0 and result["replaced"] == 0:
             raise brozzler.NothingToClaim
+        else:
+            return brozzler.Page(**result["changes"][0]["new_val"])
 
     def has_outstanding_pages(self, site):
         results_iter = self.r.table("pages").between(
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a9b3eee..8fc5085 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import setuptools
 
 setuptools.setup(
         name='brozzler',
-        version='1.1.dev34',
+        version='1.1.dev35',
         description='Distributed web crawling with browsers',
         url='https://github.com/internetarchive/brozzler',
         author='Noah Levitt',