The Hamburglar debuted in 1971 as McDonald’s masked, striped-shirt hamburger thief.
The character became part of the McDonaldland cast, a fantasy world created for McDonald’s advertising. His basic role was simple and memorable: he tried to steal hamburgers, especially the company’s signature Big Mac. The costume and personality changed over time, but the hamburger-stealing concept remained central.
The earliest Hamburglar design was more grotesque than the later child-friendly version. McDonald’s eventually redesigned him as a small, mischievous character in a black-and-white striped outfit, cape, gloves, and mask. That later appearance became the version most associated with the character.
The Hamburglar is sometimes confused with McDonaldland’s other characters, including Mayor McCheese and Officer Big Mac. Those figures represented civic or law-enforcement roles, while the Hamburglar was defined by his comic attempts to obtain McDonald’s food.