want a burger

He bought his first car on 17 May 1972 and drove it to the McDonald's on Military Road in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

He ate nine Big Macs that day.

Three of the cartons went into the back seat, and looking at them, Don Gorske decided he was going to eat this sandwich for the rest of his life. Then he started counting.

He has counted every single one since. He kept the receipts. He kept the cartons.

Gorske spent his working life as a corrections officer at a maximum security prison, and turned down most interview requests while he was there, on the grounds that inmates who saw him on television would never let it go. They found out anyway.

Guinness gave him the record in 1999, when he was on roughly 16,000.

He has eaten one in all fifty states and in Canada. Friends returning from abroad have carried them home for him. When he travels, the sandwich travels.

He has cut down since the early days and now has two a day, one at lunch and one at dinner. Every Monday he buys six at a time.

On 15 March 2025, in the same restaurant on Military Road, in front of a crowd of family, friends and strangers who had driven in from across the Midwest, he ate his 35,000th. The mayor declared it Don Gorske Day. He handed out commemorative pins.

Guinness asked what advice he had for anyone hoping to break his record.

One word. Don't 👀