diff --git a/lib/kue.js b/lib/kue.js
index 533bf20c..40a6758f 100755
--- a/lib/kue.js
+++ b/lib/kue.js
@@ -299,7 +299,10 @@ Queue.prototype.watchStuckJobs = function( ms ) {
     }
     this.stuck_job_watch = setInterval(function() {
       client.evalsha(sha, 0, function( err, fixes ) {
-        if( err ) return clearInterval(this.stuck_job_watch);
+        if( err ) {
+          self.emit('error', err);
+          return clearInterval(this.stuck_job_watch);
+        }
       }.bind(this));
     }.bind(this), ms);
 
diff --git a/lib/redis.js b/lib/redis.js
index a77ff9ba..e852bb50 100755
--- a/lib/redis.js
+++ b/lib/redis.js
@@ -22,6 +22,12 @@ var url   = require('url');
 exports.configureFactory = function( options, queue ) {
   options.prefix = options.prefix || 'q';
 
+  // make sure the prefix of the queue doesnt contain special characters
+  var pattern = /^[a-z0-9]+$/i
+  if (!pattern.test(options.prefix)) {
+    throw new Error('kue prefix string must be alphanumeric');
+  }
+
   if( typeof options.redis === 'string' ) {
     // parse the url
     var conn_info = url.parse(options.redis, true /* parse query string */);