Barry Myrick barked crazy.
The pest control professional is in a fight with his former employer, M&M Environmental in Queens, for his loyal partner – a mixture of pit bulls that sniffs the bedbug 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 nothing will come between me and her.”
Myrick, 37, worked with Roxy for four years, inspecting commercial and residential properties before being fired from the company in March.
Although the dog had been provided by M&M, which covered his food and veterinary bills, she has been living with Myrick and his wife, Joana, since he brought Roxy from a dog training unit in Florida. (M&M paid for her training.)
The couple has been inseparable – enjoying hiking trips to Bear Mountain and holidays in Woodstock – ever since. “She is part of our family. This is the closest we have to children, ”said Myrick, who has no plans to have children.
But things changed when, shortly after the pandemic began, he chose to be laid off rather than pivot and work for M&M as a COVID cleaner without Roxy. He returned the company vehicle, credit cards and equipment, but not his partner – explaining that a manager told him, “You’re going to keep Roxy, aren’t you?”
On June 25, M&M sent Myrick a letter calling the dog “company property” and asking for it to be returned immediately. When Myrick refused, M&M took legal action, reporting that Roxy was stolen and led the Queens District Attorney’s office to charge Myrick with theft.
Still refusing to give up Roxy, Myrick surrendered to the NYPD in August. “I spent 15 hours in prison. I wouldn’t want that to be my worst enemy, “said Myrick, who shared a cell with 20 other people. “The stories I heard were unreal – someone beat his stepfather with a baseball bat. I couldn’t tell anyone I was there for a puppy. “
M&M told The Post in a statement that the company always intended to hire Myrick and that managers expected him to return to work by June.
But Myrick moved from Brooklyn to Philadelphia in May and says he would not have left town if he thought he would get his job back.
He admitted to The Post that in 2016, he signed a contract that “said that if I was terminated or if I stopped working there, I would have to return Roxy.” But he claimed that M&M dropped the request when the company fired him and did not ask for it back.
“When they left the dog with him in March, [M&M] he didn’t make any arrangements … to get the dog or pay the dog in the meantime, “said Myrick’s lawyer, William J. Kurtz.
For now, a Queens judge – citing previous divorce custody judgments – lets Myrick keep Roxy until the case is resolved. However, M&M said that 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 mentioned 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 set a dangerous precedent: “Maybe he’s attached to Roxy – maybe he wants to start his own business.”
“That’s the last thing I think about,” said Myrick, who is now collecting unemployment, adding that he understood the company’s concerns. “My only concern is not to break up with her. I’m not starting a competing business in a moneyless pandemic. ”
Myrick insists that Roxy, who comes from a troubled background, will not bond with another coach. “He’s not a golden retriever who will be happy with anyone,” he said. “He has no eyes for anyone else.”
The loved ones tried to persuade him to leave. “My family said, ‘Give the dog back, you’ll get another one,'” a defiant Myrick recalls. “But I emptied my bank account, I spent time in prison. . . what else can I throw at myself? I will fight it to the end. “
