The Hamburglar was McDonald's advertising character who wore black-and-white striped clothing in his early design.
He was introduced as part of McDonaldland, a fictional setting populated by characters connected with McDonald's food and restaurant imagery. The Hamburglar was portrayed as a small mischievous character whose defining desire was to steal hamburgers, making him a recurring comic figure in commercials and promotions.
His original appearance was darker and more exaggerated than the later version many viewers remember. The early character wore striped clothing, a cape, and a broad-brimmed hat. McDonald's redesigned him in the 1980s as a younger, friendlier-looking character, while keeping the hamburger-stealing theme.
The Hamburglar is often confused with Captain Crook, another McDonaldland character associated with Filet-O-Fish. The distinction matters because both belonged to the same fictional advertising world, but the Hamburglar's defining brand behavior involved hamburgers.