diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index c713bcb14a..1204e667f1 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@ Breaking Changes
   a small overhead when enabled. There's not enough users of network timestamp
   metadata to justify the complexity of treating it separate.
 
+- The ``current_event_time()`` builtin function as well as ``Event::Time()``
+  and ``EventMgr::CurrentEventTime()`` now return ``-1.0`` if not timestamp
+  metadata is available for the current event, or if no event is being
+  dispatched. Previously this would've likely been 0.0, or the previously
+  dispatched event.
+
 New Functionality
 -----------------
 
diff --git a/src/Event.cc b/src/Event.cc
index 8164ba3dd8..d8694aebe7 100644
--- a/src/Event.cc
+++ b/src/Event.cc
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ zeek::VectorValPtr Event::MetadataValues(const EnumValPtr& id) const {
 
 double Event::Time() const {
     if ( ! meta )
-        return 0.0;
+        return detail::NO_TIMESTAMP;
 
     for ( const auto& m : *meta )
         if ( m.Id() == static_cast<zeek_uint_t>(detail::MetadataType::NetworkTimestamp) ) {
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ double Event::Time() const {
             return m.Val()->AsTime();
         }
 
-    return 0.0;
+    return detail::NO_TIMESTAMP;
 }
 
 void Event::Describe(ODesc* d) const {
diff --git a/src/Event.h b/src/Event.h
index 49c78dae6f..82804ca58d 100644
--- a/src/Event.h
+++ b/src/Event.h
@@ -49,6 +49,8 @@ using EventMetadataVectorPtr = std::unique_ptr<EventMetadataVector>;
  */
 EventMetadataVectorPtr MakeEventMetadataVector(double t);
 
+constexpr double NO_TIMESTAMP = -1.0;
+
 } // namespace detail
 
 class Event final : public Obj {
@@ -170,8 +172,8 @@ public:
     // the event was intended to be executed. For scheduled events, this is the time the event
     // was scheduled to. For any other event, this is the time when the event was created.
     //
-    // If no event is being processed, returns 0.0.
-    double CurrentEventTime() const { return current ? current->Time() : 0.0; }
+    // If no event is being processed or there is no timestamp information, returns -1.0
+    double CurrentEventTime() const { return current ? current->Time() : detail::NO_TIMESTAMP; }
 
     int Size() const { return num_events_queued - num_events_dispatched; }
 
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/core.event-metadata.current-event-time/output b/testing/btest/Baseline/core.event-metadata.current-event-time/output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f4112240a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/Baseline/core.event-metadata.current-event-time/output
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+### BTest baseline data generated by btest-diff. Do not edit. Use "btest -U/-u" to update. Requires BTest >= 0.63.
+new_connection add_network_timestamp=T current_event_time=1362692526.869344 network_timestamp=[1362692526.869344]
+new_connection add_network_timestamp=F current_event_time=-1.0 network_timestamp=[]
diff --git a/testing/btest/core/event-metadata/current-event-time.zeek b/testing/btest/core/event-metadata/current-event-time.zeek
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..dd81321d8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/core/event-metadata/current-event-time.zeek
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# @TEST-DOC: Check current_event_time() produces the same as event metadata, or else -1.0
+#
+# @TEST-EXEC: zeek -r $TRACES/http/get.trace %INPUT EventMetadata::add_network_timestamp=T >> output 2>&1
+# @TEST-EXEC: zeek -r $TRACES/http/get.trace %INPUT EventMetadata::add_network_timestamp=F >> output 2>&1
+#
+# @TEST-EXEC: TEST_DIFF_CANONIFIER= btest-diff output
+
+
+event new_connection(c: connection)
+	{
+	print fmt("new_connection add_network_timestamp=%s current_event_time=%s network_timestamp=%s",
+	          EventMetadata::add_network_timestamp, current_event_time(),
+	          EventMetadata::current(EventMetadata::NETWORK_TIMESTAMP));
+	}