So on my way to school I was driving on 290 at a reasonable speed, perhaps 60mph. I saw the car in front of me swerve to the left and then, there, in the middle of the road was a giant piece of carpet. When I say giant I mean it took up the entire middle lane, which I happened to be driving in. The highway was fairly busy and at the precise moment I needed to swerve I could not because people were passing me on both sides, so I hit the breaks. I luckily stopped right before the carpet...I could have driven over it at a slower speed, but at that point I was already at a dead stop in the middle of the road.
So at first I was scared that I was going to get rear ended... and then that the person behind me would, which would then cause a pile up. Luckily, this did not happen. I got around the carpet finally, as did those behind me, but as I looked back, quite a long line had formed in the center lane as a result of this carpet.
I considered calling someone (who?) but before I got the chance I saw someone pull up to one of those cops sitting in between the median. I am hoping that they told those cops to go out their and risk their lives to pick up that piece of carpet, cause it sure as hell wasn't going to be me.

Moral of the story: Make sure your shit is tied down, strapped in, super glued to your bumper, whatever it takes to keep it attached to your vehicle AND watch out for killer carpet.