Apple has built an ‘invisible wall’ on its Maps app to hide CEO Tim Cook’s house after he was targeted by an ‘armed’ stalker who drove 2,800 miles from Virginia to California to find him.
Mr Cook’s £2.5million home in California has now been pixelated on both Apple Maps and Google Maps.
Julia Lee Choi, 45, from McLean, began tweeting about Mr Cook, 61, on Halloween in 2020 under the name Julia Lee Cook.
She calls him her husband and ‘my bed man’. In her first tweet she wrote: ‘My bed MAN! My bathroom MAN! My kitchen MAN! My Cleaning MAN! My Husband! My MAN is Tim Cook ! My kids Daddy!’
Choi has now been served with a restraining order which prevents her from travelling within 200 years of Mr Cook or any other Apple employees, going to any Apple property or Mr Cook’s home.
Julia Lee Choi, 45, from McLean, Virginia, has been harassing Cook (pictured in September 2019) since October 2020, according to his lawyers
Choi on October 31, 2020 opened a Twitter account using this profile photo. She fired off 18 tweets that one day, and the account has been dormant ever since late 2020
Mr Cook’s £2.5million home in California has now been pixelated on both Apple Maps and Google Maps
She is also not allowed to own a gun.
Choi has previously taken issue with the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai. She tweeted: ‘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.
‘Julia Lee Cook totally understand my husband’s past and relationships with unexpected parties.’
In another tweet, she declared: ‘My husband, I am not cleaning, cooking, or I am just waiting for my husband! My heart is tingling.’
She emailed Cook approximately 200 times from October to November 2020, sending him messages which included photos of what appear to be loaded handguns, according to documents.
Court documents said 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.
One of the messages reportedly read: ‘What you have done is criminal defense, murdered.’
Cook’s lawyers state, in their petition for the restraining order, 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.’
In September 2021, Choi allegedly sent Cook an email telling him that she is ‘applying [to be] your roommate.’
According to the restraining order, she drove from Northern Virginia to California 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 police arrived on the scene, and said she ‘could be violent’.
Choi appeared to have rented an Airbnb in San Jose for some time.
On December 18, 2021 she emailed him and said: ‘we do not have to meet. give me 500 millions cash. then I will forget and forgive all better listen to me.’
Afterward, she allegedly continued sending Cook concerning tweets and emails, with one threatening to burn Cook’s home.
The request for a restraining order was filed Thursday and granted Friday, as first reported in Mercury News.
Apple believes that the woman is still in the South Bay and could possibly be armed.
A hearing is scheduled for March 29.
