The Hamburglar was introduced in 1971 as McDonald's French-fry-stealing burglar.
He was one of the central characters in McDonaldland, the fictional world McDonald's created for its advertising. Early versions of the Hamburglar were short, mischievous, and dressed like a stereotypical burglar, making his interest in hamburgers immediately clear to children.
The character's appearance changed substantially over time. Later advertising presented him as a younger, more stylized figure rather than the small, older-looking burglar seen in the earliest commercials. This evolution can cause confusion when viewers compare different decades of McDonald's advertising. The Hamburglar was also not the same character as Grimace, who was associated with shakes, or Captain Crook, another McDonaldland figure connected with Filet-O-Fish promotion.