Pager fails with one node where first letter is a number

When a node title starts with a number the pager fails to print the links. All letters are printed as class="pager-current" and the list of letters shows 0 A B C ... Z even when there are nodes that start with other numbers. A quick fix was to change this:

if ($item == $current) {

to

if ($item === $current) {

in views_alpha_pager.module on the theme_alpha_pager function. I haven't found a solution for the display of 0 instead of the first characer numbers of the nodes. Patch attached.