There are Apple fans, there are Apple fans, and then there are those that need some kind of mental help. A woman named Julia Lee Choi has been stalking Apple CEO Tim Cook since October 2020 according to court documents. Choi, who lives in Virginia, claims that Cook was the father of her twin children. Choi calls herself Julia Lee Cook and threatened the executive on social media.
Choi has sent approximately 200 emails to Cook with some of them including photos of loaded handguns. On Monday, Santa Clara County Superior Court issued a restraining order against Choi on behalf of Cook and all Apple employees. A court hearing has been scheduled for March 29th.
Choi, 45, started tweeting about Apple’s CEO on Halloween in 2020 when she sent out 18 tweets calling him her “husband” and “bed man.” Posting about Cook on that one day, she wrote, “‘My bed MAN! My bathroom MAN! My kitchen MAN! My Cleaning MAN! My Husband! My MAN is Tim Cook ! My kids Daddy~!'” It is no secret that Cook is gay, having announced his orientation back in 2014.
It seems obvious that Choi has some issues. She got upset at Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for sending a tweet to Cook and wrote, “You should unfollow my husband Tim Cook as soon as possible.” She also sent a tweet to Google CEO Sundar Pichai apparently thinking that he was a female named Sandra Pichia. With her claws out, Choi wrote, “While we two of us reached our love final decision, and in progress, Sandra Pichia, CEO of Google insisting to interrupt Cook’s love and tried to hurt me several times.”
The court said that the emails demonstrated ‘a significant escalation in tone.’ Some of the messages, described by Cook’s attorney as ‘threatening and highly disturbing,’ were sexual in nature, and some were downright violent. One of the messages reportedly read: ‘What you have done is criminal defense, murdered.’
Lawyers for the Apple CEO, in a petition for a restraining order, stated that on November 3, 2020, she emailed him a photo of a package of ammunition: the following day, she wrote: “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.” Choi then started to register fake corporation names described as “highly offensive.”
The fake corporations that she filed were located in California, New York, and Virginia, and each one listed Cook as a chief executive or director and used his home address or an Apple corporate address. And her actions became even more frightening. Last September she sent Cook an email that said that she was filing to become his roommate in Palo Alto.
And in the application for the restraining order, it was noted that “she drove from Northern Virginia to Palo Alto twice within two months in a Porsche Macan; the second time, in October 2021, 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, and said she ‘could be violent’.”
Last month Choi amped up her threats by sending an email to Cook that said, ‘we do not have to meet. give me 500 millions cash. then I will forget and forgive all better listen to me.’ She continued to threaten the CEO and even sent a tweet threatening to burn down Cook’s home. Apple believes that she is still in the South Bay and might be armed.
The temporary restraining order was filed last Thursday and was granted on Friday. It requires Choi to stay away from any Apple employee or any Apple-owned building.