Barry Myrick is crazy.
The pest control professional is in a fight with his former employer, M&M Environmental, in Queens, over his faithful partner, a mix of pit bulls that sniffed bed bugs named Roxy.
“She’s my best friend,” said Myrick, who even has a Roxy tattoo on his leg. “I got engaged to her a long time ago, and there will be nothing between me and her.”
Myrick, 37, had worked with Roxy for four years, inspecting commercial and residential properties, before being fired from the company in March.
Although M&M had provided her with the dog, which covered her food and veterinary expenses, she has been living with Myrick and his wife, Joana, since he sought out Roxy from a dog training center in Florida. (M&M paid for his training.)
Since then, the couple has been inseparable, enjoying excursions to Bear Mountain and vacations in Woodstock. “He is part of our family. That’s the closest thing to the kids we’ll have, ”said Myrick, who has no plans to have children.
But things changed when, shortly after the pandemic began, he chose to be fired instead of pivoting and working for M&M as a COVID cleaner without Roxy. He returned his company vehicle, credit cards and equipment, but not his rogue companion, explaining that a manager had told him, “You’ll keep Roxy, won’t you?”
On June 25, M&M sent a letter to Myrick calling the dog “company-owned” and demanding that it be returned immediately. When Myrick refused, M&M took legal action, reporting that Roxy was robbed and directed the Queens District Attorney’s office to beat Myrick on charges of grand theft.
Still refusing to resign from Roxy, Myrick surrendered in August to the NYPD. “I spent 15 hours in prison. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, “said Myrick, who shared a cell with about twenty others.” The stories I heard were unreal: someone hit his stepfather with a baseball bat. I couldn’t tell anyone. that he was there for a puppy ”.
M&M told The Post in a statement that the company always intended to hire Myrick and that executives expected him to return to work in June.
But Myrick had moved from Brooklyn to Philadelphia in May and says he would not have left the city if he thought he would get his job back.
He acknowledged to The Post that in 2016 he signed a contract that “said that if I was fired or if I no longer worked there, I would have to return Roxy.” But he alleged that M&M lost his claim when the company fired him and did not ask for his back.
“When they left the dog with him in March, [M&M] he didn’t make any deal … to get the dog or pay for the dog provisionally, ”Myrick’s lawyer, William J. Kurtz, said.
For now, a Queens judge, citing previous custody resolutions in the divorce case, allows Myrick to keep Roxy until the case is resolved. M&M, however, said Roxy is a working dog and that this is a case of ownership, not custody.
M&M lawyer Gary Port said that under the 2016 contract, the company owns Roxy and noted that training a dog like her can cost $ 15,000. “My client didn’t give this guy a $ 15,000 gift.”
Port added that allowing Myrick to keep Roxy would be a dangerous precedent: “Maybe he’s tied to Roxy, maybe he wants to set up his own business.”
“This is the last thing I’m thinking about,” retorted Myrick, who is currently receiving unemployment benefits, adding that he understood the company’s concerns. “My only concern is not to separate from her. I don’t start a company competing in a pandemic without money. “
Myrick insists that Roxy, who came from a troubled background, would not relate to another coach. “He’s not a golden retriever who will be happy with anyone,” he said. “He has no eyes for anyone else.”
Loved ones have tried to convince him to walk away. “My family said, ‘Go back to the dog, you’ll have another one,'” a defiant Myrick recalled. “But I’ve emptied my bank account, spent time in jail… that to the end “.
