This has not been a pleasant article to write. I knew Tiaan when I first started running in the early 2000s. He managed the Fourways Runner at the time, we both ran for Fourways Road Runners and he seemed like a “good guy”. Although we did not train for the race together, we both ran our first sub-3 marathon at Kaapsehoop in 2008 (and Tiaan featured in my race report). Tiaan has 19 Comrades finishes to his name including 3 silvers with a best time of 7:11:10 in 2012. He was an excellent runner and was perfectly entitled to give himself the moniker “The Flying Dutchman” (or TFD for short). Unfortunately, it turns out that he is also a master con artist and the “The Lying Dutchman” would have been much more appropriate.
When I got a message from a running friend asking, “Do you know Tiaan Conradie? I think he’s scammed us for shoes”, I was sceptical – surely there must be some kind of explanation. A couple of weeks later I received a similar message from a second running friend asking if I could apply my investigative skills to one Tiaan Conradie aka The Flying Dutchman. The result is this article and the hope that it will prevent others from getting caught in similar scams.
