diff --git a/pillarsdk/utils.py b/pillarsdk/utils.py
index 3c60c6a..75c3921 100644
--- a/pillarsdk/utils.py
+++ b/pillarsdk/utils.py
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 import json
 import re
 import sys
-from datetime import datetime
+import datetime
+import time
 from contextlib import closing
+
 import requests
 
 try:
@@ -27,7 +29,7 @@ class PillarJSONEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
         # Late import to prevent circular references.
         from .resource import Resource
 
-        if isinstance(obj, datetime):
+        if isinstance(obj, datetime.datetime):
             return obj.isoformat(' ')
         if isinstance(obj, Resource):
             return obj.to_dict()
@@ -104,6 +106,24 @@ def merge_dict(data, *override):
     return result
 
 
+ZERO = datetime.timedelta(0)
+
+
+class UTC(datetime.tzinfo):
+    """UTC"""
+
+    def utcoffset(self, dt):
+        return ZERO
+
+    def tzname(self, dt):
+        return "UTC"
+
+    def dst(self, dt):
+        return ZERO
+
+utc = UTC()
+
+
 def convert_datetime(item):
     """Starting from a JSON object, find and replace the _create and _updated
     keys with actual datetime objects.
@@ -113,7 +133,9 @@ def convert_datetime(item):
     for k in keys:
         # Check if the key is in the document
         if k in item:
-            item[k] = datetime.strptime(item[k], "%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %Z")
+            parsed = time.strptime(item[k], "%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %Z")
+            as_utc = datetime.datetime(*parsed[0:6], tzinfo=utc)
+            item[k] = as_utc
 
     return item