Mike thinks that 1920 Fairfax has gnomes that steal things. Mike's theory is that these "Link-like" gnomes steal useful things and later replace them with what should be useless stuff. Then magically these useless items later become useful.
Sometimes the toilet paper ends up missing, but the we will find a headlight for a '74 Buick. After several weeks of wondering where the headlight came from a friend will come over and need a headlight.
According to Mike the House Gnomes come for the living room closet. The only proof that he has of them is the strange disappearances of things and the frequency of strange things turning up in the house. But as far as the rest of us are concerned Mike just spends too much time alone in the living room.