diff --git a/sentry_sdk/utils.py b/sentry_sdk/utils.py
index fe469d58ed..a0a0ba3bd7 100644
--- a/sentry_sdk/utils.py
+++ b/sentry_sdk/utils.py
@@ -604,6 +604,8 @@ def convert_types(obj):
         return [convert_types(v) for v in obj]
     if not isinstance(obj, string_types + number_types):
         return safe_repr(obj)
+    if isinstance(obj, bytes):
+        return obj.decode("utf-8", "replace")
     return obj
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_client.py b/tests/test_client.py
index 78d201ffc0..31bdf584d6 100644
--- a/tests/test_client.py
+++ b/tests/test_client.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 # coding: utf-8
+import json
 import logging
 import pytest
 import subprocess
@@ -281,3 +282,11 @@ def test_scope_initialized_before_client(sentry_init, capture_events):
     event, = events
 
     assert "tags" not in event
+
+
+def test_weird_chars(sentry_init, capture_events):
+    sentry_init()
+    events = capture_events()
+    capture_message(u"föö".encode("latin1"))
+    event, = events
+    assert json.loads(json.dumps(event)) == event