What does the less-than symbol "<" mean when it's contained in the read_bases section of a pileup file?

Question

[procrastrjf]

Pileup format I'm using

Here's the line in my data that's confusing me:

chr1 12284 N 1 < 5

I'm not sure how to deal with it? Also, if anyone knows where good documentation of .pileup format is I would love to know. I can't find good .pileup documentation online.

[GenoMax]

See if this would help: Pileup format parsing difficulty