diff --git a/Lib/urllib.py b/Lib/urllib.py
index 2d53c125885..50bed84ee4f 100644
--- a/Lib/urllib.py
+++ b/Lib/urllib.py
@@ -413,7 +413,10 @@ class URLopener:
         import mimetypes, mimetools, rfc822, StringIO
         host, file = splithost(url)
         localname = url2pathname(file)
-        stats = os.stat(localname)
+        try:
+            stats = os.stat(localname)
+        except OSError, e:
+            raise IOError(e.errno, e.strerror, e.filename)
         size = stats.st_size
         modified = rfc822.formatdate(stats.st_mtime)
         mtype = mimetypes.guess_type(url)[0]