See Also: "Bath Salts" Not Found in Naked Carjacker John Brigham's System, but Cops Say PCP Was
The naked carjacker who terrorized Scottsdale last Friday once worked as a Chandler high school English teacher and, as recently as last year, a real estate executive.
John Brigham, 45, was arrested June 29, 2012 after the incident in Scottsdale that left several people injured, including a woman who is eight months pregnant. He was also arrested in November for trashing his uncle's house while on a meth-fueled rampage.
Brigham worked as an English teacher at Chandler High school from 1995-2003, and also may have done some coaching for a few of the school's sports teams.
"By all accounts, he was well-regarded," said Terry Locke, director of community relations for the Chandler Unified School District. "He was an excellent English teacher and the school was sorry to see him leave, but there were a lot more opportunities for him in the private sector."
To Locke's knowledge, Brigham didn't display any alarming behavior during his time at Chandler High.
From there, he moved on from teaching to pursue a career in the real-estate industry. He was named Senior Vice President at Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT in Arizona in 2006, according to an article on RISMedia.com and Brigham's own Linkedin profile.
Case, Huff and Associates, a Scottsdale-based real estate company, confirmed that Brigham did work for its firm, but a representative would not provide a time-frame for his employment there and declined to comment on his current situation. Brigham's Linkedin account indicates that he began working for the company in 2011.
Several New Times readers have commented in the past few days on their connection to Brigham.
Commenter "Ewave2613," who said he is one of Brigham's former students wrote, "He was an awesome teacher and a great guy. It breaks my heart to see him like this and it must have taken something serious to push him over the edge. I hope he gets better."
Although Brigham appears to have left some positive impressions on a number of different people and places in the past, it also appears that not everyone was a fan.
"I would always get in trouble in his class and he would call my parents. I would tell them that he is a dumbass." wrote "Reuster," who identified himself as Brigham's former student. "They now believe me."
