An ‘Obsessed’—and Possibly Armed—Woman Is Stalking Tim Cook in Palo Alto, Apple Says

It’s one thing to be obsessed with Apple products—and another to be obsessed with its CEO. Apple was granted a restraining order last week against a 45-year-old Virginia woman who allegedly traveled to the Palo Alto, California, area—potentially armed—in a Porsche SUV to find CEO Tim Cook. The cross-country trip came after more than a year of threatening messages the woman sent Cook, ranging from tweets claiming to be his wife and mother to his children to emails of roommate applications and photos of a loaded pistol. She eventually traveled to Cook’s apartment in October and tried to meet him there, but after she was turned away and left, she returned and told police that she “could get violent,” the company claimed. She is now in the area again, Apple said, and she intends to find Cook. The company did not respond to Mercury News’ request for comment, and Palo Alto police said there was not an active investigation into her.