diff --git a/src/Objects/ObjectsService.php b/src/Objects/ObjectsService.php
index 52ef17d..436d2c8 100644
--- a/src/Objects/ObjectsService.php
+++ b/src/Objects/ObjectsService.php
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ namespace ActivityPub\Objects;
 use ActivityPub\Entities\ActivityPubObject;
 use ActivityPub\Entities\Field;
 use ActivityPub\Utils\DateTimeProvider;
+use ActivityPub\Utils\Util;
 use Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager;
 use Doctrine\ORM\QueryBuilder;
 use GuzzleHttp\Client;
@@ -311,13 +312,14 @@ class ObjectsService
      */
     public function dereference( $id )
     {
-        // TOOD pass a $request into here, so that I can sign the request below and so that
-        // I can check for local objects that should not result in network calls
         $object = $this->getObject( $id );
         if ( $object ) {
             return $object;
         }
-        // TODO sign this request?
+        if ( Util::isLocalUri( $id ) ) {
+            return null;
+        }
+        // TODO sign this request? Would have to pass in the request object to get the actor to sign with
         $request = new Request( 'GET', $id, array(
             'Accept' => 'application/ld+json; profile="https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams"'
         ) );
diff --git a/src/Utils/Util.php b/src/Utils/Util.php
index 118f385..f9479f5 100644
--- a/src/Utils/Util.php
+++ b/src/Utils/Util.php
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 namespace ActivityPub\Utils;
 
+use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
+
 class Util
 {
     /**
@@ -32,5 +34,11 @@ class Util
         }
         return true;
     }
+
+    public static function isLocalUri( $uri )
+    {
+        $request = Request::createFromGlobals();
+        return parse_url( $uri, PHP_URL_HOST ) === $request->getHost();
+    }
 }