A 45-year-old woman from Virginia began tweeting about Apple CEO Tim Cook on Halloween 2020 — sending nearly a dozen messages calling him her husband and “my bed man.”
Nearly 15 months after her first tweet claiming a relationship with Cook, he has received a temporary restraining order from a Santa Clara County Superior Court after these peculiar online dispatches allegedly shifted into trespassing at Cook’s Palo Alto home.
As first reported by the Bay Area News Group, the woman sent Cook nearly 200 emails from October to November 2020 that showed “a significant escalation in tone.” Some of the messages, described by Cook’s attorney as “threatening and highly disturbing,” were sexual in nature. Others had a photo of a loaded handgun and ammunition attached. One of the messages reportedly read, “What you have done is criminal defense, murdered.”
Around this time, the woman began registering fake corporations, some of which were described in the restraining order application filed last Thursday as “highly offensive.” All these fake corporations, opened in California, New York and Virginia, had Cook as a chief executive or director and used his home address or an Apple corporate address.
The situation escalated further last September, when the woman allegedly sent Cook an email telling him that she is “applying [to be] your roommate in palo alto.”
According to the restraining order, she drove from Northern Virginia to Palo Alto twice within two months in a Porsche Macan; the second time, she showed up at Cook’s home and told security officials that she wanted to speak to Cook. She remained on the property until Palo Alto police arrived on the scene. Afterward, she allegedly continued sending Cook concerning tweets and emails, with one threatening to burn Cook’s home.
Apple believes that the woman is still in the South Bay and could possibly be armed. The temporary restraining order requires her to stay away from any Apple employee or any Apple-owned building. A representative for Apple declined a request for comment from SFGATE.
A hearing is scheduled for March 29.