Before I call the previous owner of my newly aquired '82 300sd a dufus again (... oh what the heck, I'll call him a dufus again anyway, if not for this, I'm sure I'll find something else later :-) can anybody think why somebody would stuff the inside of the foglight housings with paper towels?

I'm trying to figure out why the foglights don't work. Both of them seem to have some kind of a silvery opaque film onthe inside of the lense. When I pulled the right one I found the bulb wire unplugged. Plugged it in and the bulb works with the light switch, but no light showing through the lense.
Took the bulb out and found the inside of the housing stuffed with a paper towel.
I can't fish the papertowel out with pliers/tweezers etc, so can I cut the seal between the lenseand housing to seperats them and remove the whatever and silicone or? it back together.

Thanks----------Robert