diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index 4a066ef..9039389 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+    Bug Fixes
+	* URI first character matching [github 17] (lazarus)
+
 20160806  Sat Aug  6 13:36:14 PDT 2016
     Distribution
     * Homepage is now metacpan
diff --git a/lib/URI/Find.pm b/lib/URI/Find.pm
index ad2ec75..6762989 100644
--- a/lib/URI/Find.pm
+++ b/lib/URI/Find.pm
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ my $extraSchemesRe = qr{^(?:git|svn|ssh|svn\+ssh)$};
 # We need to avoid picking up 'HTTP::Request::Common' so we have a
 # subset of uric without a colon ("I have no colon and yet I must poop")
 my($uricCheat) = __PACKAGE__->uric_set;
-$uricCheat =~ tr/://d;
+$uricCheat =~ s{ \\ \: }{}mx; # Issue #17
 
 # Identifying characters accidentally picked up with a URI.
 my($cruftSet) = q{])\},.'";}; #'#
diff --git a/t/filter.t b/t/filter.t
index b1dbbc2..dbf2b06 100644
--- a/t/filter.t
+++ b/t/filter.t
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ my @tasks = (
 
   # Non-URL nested inside brackets
   [q{<a href="foo://example&.com">}, q{<a href="foo://example&amp;.com">}],
+  [q{ http:\/example.com }, q{ http:\/example.com }],
 );
 
 for my $task (@tasks) {