diff --git a/moztelemetry/heka_message_parser.py b/moztelemetry/heka_message_parser.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/moztelemetry/heka_message_parser.py
+++ b/moztelemetry/heka_message_parser.py
@@ -19,7 +19,11 @@ def _parse_heka_record(record):
     for field in fields:
         name = field.name.split('.')
         value = field.value_string
-        _add_field(result, name, value)
+
+	if len(name) == 1:  # Treat top-level fields as strings
+	    result[name[0]] = value[0] if len(value) else ""
+	else:
+	    _add_field(result, name, value)
 
     return result
Treat top-level fields as strings.