Tim Cook has been granted a temporary restraining order against a female stalker who allegedly sent him photos of a loaded gun and claimed they were married and that he had fathered twins with her.
The woman from Virginia, who The Independent is not naming because she has not been charged with a crime, stalked the Apple CEO for more than a year, trespassed on his home and sent him hundreds of threatening emails, according to court documents.
In the court documents, Apple alleges that the woman registered fake corporations under Mr Cook’s name and wrote on Twitter that he would be “suicided in his condo”.
Apple filed for a temporary restraining order last week against the 45-year-old woman, saying that her messages and actions showed a “significant escalation in tone” and became “threatening and highly disturbing” over the last year.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Carol Overton granted the restraining order on Friday, barring the woman from harassing, stalking and contacting Mr Cook and any other Apple employees, Mercury News first reported.
According to the petition for the restraining order, Mr Cook first noticed the stalking around October or November 2020 when the woman tagged him in a tweet where she claimed to be his wife and the mother of his twins.
Mr Cook came out as gay in 2014 and does not have any children.
The woman changed her last name on social media to Cook and tweeted about their alleged relationship more than a dozen times on 31 October 2020, the documents claim.
Between late-October and mid-November of that year, she also allegedly emailed Mr Cook almost 200 times.
On 3 November 2020, the woman allegedly sent him a series of emails with photos of a loaded handgun and a package of ammunition, writing in one: “My new gun will never return it at this time before I shoot!”
The following day, she allegedly emailed him: “’I warned and told you stop trying to kill me. You made me to buy this instead of going for Christmas. I will NEVER forgive forget you.”
Days later, the court documents allege she indicated her desire for a sexual relationship with Mr Cook, saying she “cannot live any longer” and her patience was “almost done”.
According to the filing, the woman then became “obsessed” with Mr Cook’s home in Palo Alto, California.
In September 2021, she emailed him that she was applying to be his roommate at the property, the filing states.
The following month, the woman allegedly drove across the country from Virginia to Mr Cook’s home in California and was detained by police for trespassing on his property.
In that alleged incident in October 2021, she showed up at the property and told his security that she wanted to speak to him.
When she was told to leave, she drove away before returning around 20 minutes later, the documents state.
Palo Alto police officers were called to the scene and the woman allegedly told them she “could be violent”.
A search of her vehicle found no weapons, the petition says.
The woman allegedly continued to send Mr Cook emails following that encounter, including one message in December where she demanded $500m in cash and “then I will forget and forgive”.
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Earlier this month, she allegedly tweeted that Mr Cook would be “suicided in his condo” and sent him emails that she would be moving into his Palo Alto property, the documents state.
The woman also allegedly registered fake corporations which listed Mr Cook as the CEO or director or which used his home address or an Apple corporate address.
Some of the fictitious businesses, which were opened in California, New York and Virginia, “highly offensive corporate names” such as one which was named “Safe Sexclinic, Cook HIV”, according to the petition.
“Apple believes the Respondent may be armed and is still in the South Bay Area and intends to return to Apple CEO’s residence or locate him otherwise in the near future,” the application states.
Following the granting of the temporary order, a hearing in the case has been scheduled for 29 March.
