here's a bad news good news situation that turned out ok

that ball of tape (the quarter is there to give you a scale of reference) got stuck on my tire, and made a thump thump thump sound... but I didn't know what the cause of the disturbing noise was. 

So that had me worried... I pulled over, checked the tire pressure, which was fine, so that had me thinking that maybe there was a bolt stuck in my tire, or that a blister had formed

I went back to my garage so I could get the car on jack stands and look the tires over, but first I ran my hand over the part of the tires I could reach, and found this tape ball. 

So, a lot of worry over a short amount of time, but when all was said and done, I learned that a very effective prank would be to put a tape ball on some ones tire.