getSelectedItem() crashed Android, please help

Hey,
the following lines crash android with a NPE:

Spinner spinner = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.type);

Object type = spinner.getSelectedItem();

I checked the id for correct spelling in the xml.
The spinner is being populated in the first activity, after a button is pressed a new activity is opened corresponding to the class containing the above code.

Please Help
Pascal

I figured it out, needed to pass the data along to the other activity. Thanks anyhow