There are two C time.h functions that make parsing dates fairly easy and straightforward: strftime() and strptime(). Time::Piece gives you access to both of these, i would use strptime() to get your date back. Here is a test script: 
use strict;
use warnings;
use Time::Piece;

my @str = (
   'Thu Oct  9 16:58:28 2003',
   'Mon Nov 10 06:08:08 2003',
   'oops',
);

for (@str) {
   my $time;

   eval {
      $time = Time::Piece->strptime($_,'%a %b %d %T %Y');
   };
   warn "bad time: '$_'\n" and next if $@;

   print join(',', map $time->$_,
      qw(second minute hour fullday fullmonth year)
   );

}

[download]

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

In reply to Re: scalar localtime() to timestamp by jeffa
in thread scalar localtime() to timestamp by jonnyfolk

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