What you need to know
- A restraining order has been granted after a woman sent Apple CEO Tim Cook photos of a loaded gun.
- The woman reportedly visited Cook's Palo Alto home.
- The restraining order prevents the woman from speaking to Apple employees and visiting Apple property.
Apple has been granted a restraining order after a woman trespassed at CEO Tim Cook's home with reports that she also sent him photos of a loaded gun.
According to a Mercury News report, a Virginia woman has been stalking Cook for more than a year, trespassing at his home and sending photos of a "snub-nosed revolver and cartridges." The report says that the woman has been using the Cook name and claiming she was his wife. She also said that Cook was the father of her twins.
Visits to Cook's home also raised alarms.
By September last year, the woman "became obsessed" with Cook's Palo Alto condo and sent him an email applying to be his roommate, the application said. She is believed to have driven a Porsche Macan SUV from Virginia to Palo Alto and showed up at Cook's home Oct. 22. When she told security she wanted to speak with Cook, they asked her to leave; she complied, but soon returned to the property, then left and waited in her car, according to the application.
As recently as a week before Christmas the woman emailed Cook demanding that he give her hundreds of millions of dollars, although the report doesn't say why she believed he should comply. The demand was followed by a barrage of abuse via Twitter and an email later instructed Cook to move home.
Now, a restraining order "bars the woman from possessing guns, approaching any Apple employees including Cook, entering any Apple property or going to Cook's Palo Alto residence." A hearing is set for March 29.
